The open economy balance sheet channel and the exporting decisions of firms: evidence from the Brazilian crisis of 1999

Bougheas, Spiros; Mizen, Paul; Silva, Simone

Abstract

We consider the impact of the Brazilian crisis of 1999 on the extensive and intensive margin of exporters versus non-exporters through the open economy balance sheet channel. Using an open economy balance sheet channel model with firm heterogeneity, we explore predictors that firms will engage in global markets. Our results based on a detailed firm-level panel of data for Brazilian 10,573 firms for the period 1996–2007, show that the decision to export and overall growth of sales for exporting firms is driven by size, the debt ratio, the current ratio and operating costs as well as the direct impact of the crisis itself. The findings suggest that the mechanism is driven by the response of the credit market to the creditworthiness of firms as it is by changing terms of trade.

Citation

Bougheas, S., Mizen, P., & Silva, S. (2015). The open economy balance sheet channel and the exporting decisions of firms: evidence from the Brazilian crisis of 1999. Oxford Economic Papers, 67(4), 1096-1122. https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpv046

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jun 27, 2015
• Publication Date: 2015-10
• Deposit Date: Sep 4, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 8, 2015
• Journal: Oxford Economic Papers
• Print ISSN: 0030-7653
• Electronic ISSN: 1464-3812
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 67
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 1096-1122
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpv046
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/753636
• Publisher URL: http://oep.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/06/26/oep.gpv046.full