On 26 October at 12:00 in room 2628-211, Eliane Choquette will give a seminar entitled:

"DOES BRIBING ENABLE FIRMS TO LEARN FROM EXPORTING IN WEAK INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXTS?"

Abstract
It is generally acknowledged that firms can learn from exporting. We explore how firms’ experience with bribing in contexts of weak institutions influence the productivity gains of exporting. We develop competing hypotheses on how firms’ experience with bribing in their home countries moderates the relationship between exporting and labor productivity. Based on extensive firm-level data from Sub-Saharan Africa, we find support for the notion that bribing constraints learning from exporting. We interpret our findings as evidence that, even in contexts of weak institutions, bribing can be regarded as a fee which raises the general costs of doing business and thereby crowd out (part of) the resources needed to exploit foreign knowledge gained through exporting and convert it into higher productivity.

Keywords: Exporting, productivity, bribing, institutions, Sub-Saharan Africa.

Everyone is welcome!