ABSTRACT
The apparent success of export-led development in many Asian and Latin American countries has given birth to a rapidly growing literature on both the determinants and effects of exports. At the same time, the growing importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) in aggregate capital flows has led to an equally booming literature on FDI. Although both exports and FDI are the results of firm-specific internationalisation decisions, most of the empirical literature has been based on industry and country-level aggregates. Moreover, the numerous demonstrations that both export and FDI propensities vary enormously across firms, even within industries and countries, call the results of these studies into question and encourage greater use of micro-level studies.
