The trade opening process made important adjustments in the Brazilian economy. Several firms enhanced their productivity in order to enter foreign market competitively. This paper analyzed the productivity differences between exporting and non-exporting firms in Brazil. Using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov nonparametric test, we compare productivity difference in firm-level data. The results reveal higher productivity levels in exporting firms compared to non-exporting ones. Besides, the findings are more robust to the group of smaller firms. Concerning the explanation of those differences, the results appear to support the hypothesis of selection, i.e., the reason for the higher productivity level of exporting firms seems due to selection processes not only accrued of entering foreign markets, but also of exiting them. On the other hand, the results do not confirm the existence of a learning process in the exporting market. During the period under analysis, the firms' productivity growth divergences were not significant.
Productivity; exporting firms; Brazil
