Exporting Behavior and Market Structure: Evidence from the United States

One clouded area in our understanding of the relation between international trade and industrial organization is the mutual influences among the exporting activities of an industry’s producers, the market structures surrounding them, and the industry’s performance On the existing evidence, national manufacturing industries that export heavily seem to function not purely as small segments of worldwide competitive industries. Rather, their export patterns and their market structures and performance levels exhibit complex associations that are not consistent with pure competition. We certainly need to invoke product differentiation and heterogeneity in order to explain the patterns that have been observed empirically, and oligopolistic behavior may also play a role.