The Determinants of Export Performance of Firms in Selected MENA Countries: Comparison with CEE Countries, Israel and Turkey

In this paper, we study the export performance determinants of firms in selected MENA countries, both jointly and separately, as well as compare them with the performance of firms from countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The analysis is based on information about individual firms found in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and World Bank Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) V database, covering the period 2011-2014. We estimate the probability of exports, while controlling for country- and sector-specific effects, using the probit model. We find that, in both groups of countries, similar variables affect firm export performance. Our empirical results obtained for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and CEE countries indicate that the probability of exporting is positively related to the level of productivity, firm size, spending on research and development (R&D), the share of university graduates in productive employment and the internationalization of firms. State ownership and the perception of corruption by firms are mostly not statistically significant. The results obtained for the two groups of countries are statistically not very different, but enough to have some policy implications, while results for particular countries and subgroups of countries reveal a large degree of heterogeneity.