Exporting, productive efficiency and product quality : an empirical analysis of the agricultural sector in the mediterranean countries

الملخص EN

This paper aims to investigate the association between exporting and performance in the agricultural sector of some Mediterranean countries involved in the process of global market liberalization.

The causality pattern flowing from exporting to efficiency and quality improvement is explored through the joint estimation of the performance equations and a dynamic probit model for the export decision over a set of thirty six crop products in a panel of nine South Mediterranean Countries and five European Union Countries for the period 1990 to 2005.

Product quality measures are inferred from trade data using a discrete choice demand model, and technical efficiency scores are appraised using a stochastic production frontier approach.

The empirical findings lend a strong support for the self-selection hypothesis.

Exporting appears to help quality upgrading that incites the efficient use of resources.