4. Conclusion
In this paper, we explore the effects of the availability of human and financial resources on the survival of export flows in Russian regions. Our empirical strategy is built on recent theoretical developments and empirical findings, and based on data on export flows from 20 Russian regions to 124 destination markets by 4 HS classification in the 2002–2010 period.
Based on traditional Cox approach, probit and cloglog with random effects models, our empirical estimations show that the availability of both human and financial resources affects export survival. Indeed, as was shown even after controlling for size- and time-specific effects, a better availability of human and financial resources is associated with lower hazard risks. However, these effects are higher for larger export flows and decrease over time.
The empirical results not only strongly support the idea of learning by doing while exporting, but also suggest that one way to improve export survival rates is to increase export values and, in turn, export revenues. Indeed, in the case where the perspectives of business climate improvements are limited to some extent, it was shown that the effects of the business climate on survival are larger for experienced exporters of higher values, who also live longer on average. In line with this, Das et al. (2007) study Colombian manufacturing industries and find that producers do not begin to export unless the present value of their expected future export profit stream is large. In a similar vein, Easterly and Reshef (2014), using a database of African firms, find that success stories of exports were accompanied by a dramatic increase in export revenues.
