Internationalization modes and productivity of Italian manufacturing: Some firm-level evidence

This paper compares the productivity ranking of alternative modes of internationalization for a panel of Italian manufacturing firms that are (i) purely domestic or internationally engaged in (ii) exports, (iii) foreign sourcing and (iv) foreign direct investment. By using consistent tests of stochastic dominance of first and second order, as well as by estimating productivity premia across firms for all strategies, we aim at investigating...