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‘Learning to export’ and ‘learning by exporting’: The relationship between innovation and exports

13 June 2022, 5:00 pm–6:30 pm

'Learning to export' and 'learning by exporting'

Join us to hear Fiona Tregenna and Elvis Avenyo talk about their research on '‘Learning to export’ and ‘learning by exporting’: The relationship between innovation and exports in African firms'. This talk will be chaired by IIPP’s Antonio Andreoni, followed by questions from the audience.

This event is free.

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Join Fiona Tregenna and Elvis Avenyo to discuss their paper on '‘Learning to export’ and ‘learning by exporting’: The relationship between innovation and exports in African firms'. Using a Tobit simultaneous equation full information maximum likelihood (FIML) model with selection on a cross-sectional dataset from the World Bank’s Enterprise Surveys for 28 African economies, the authors provide new evidence of a two-way positive relationship between innovation and export performance in African firms: innovation is important for both the ability to export (export propensity) and for export intensity, while exporting also increases the likelihood of innovating.

They argue that these effects are driven mainly by direct exports, and apply to both product and process innovation, exploring how these results point to a two-way relationship in which innovation enables firms to ‘learn to export’, while firms also ‘learn by exporting’. A higher share of foreign ownership in firms, as well as firms having an internationally recognised quality certification, strengthen the positive effects in both directions.

This talk will be chaired by IIPP’s Dr Antonio Andreoni and presented by Fiona Tregenna, South African Research Chair in Industrial Development and Professor of Economics, University of Johannesburg and Elvis Avenyo, Senior Researcher, Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development, University of Johannesburg. Followed by questions from the audience.

This seminar examines the relationship between innovation and export performance for African firms:

Background material linked to this seminar

Korku Avenyo, Tregenna, F and Ngwadleka, K. (2021). 'Learning to export' and 'learning to innovate': Revisiting the relationship between innovation and exports in African firms. Working Papers 861, Economic Research Southern Africa.

Read more about the IIPP seminar series 2021-2022

About the Speakers

Fiona Tregenna

South African Research Chair in Industrial Development and Professor of Economics at University of Johannesburg

Fiona Tregenna
Fiona Tregenna holds the South African Research Chair in Industrial Development, and is a Professor of Economics at the University of Johannesburg. She has published widely, received awards and grants for her research, led large research projects, and serves on the boards of various journals and book series. She sits on many panels and councils nationally and internationally, including the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Advisory Council advising on trade and industrial development across Africa, and advising South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on economic policy as a member of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council. Fiona has contributed to a number of flagship United Nations reports. She has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Cambridge. More about Fiona Tregenna

Elvis Avenyo

Senior Researcher, Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development at University of Johannesburg

Elvis Avenyo
Elvis Korku Avenyo is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Competition, Regulation, and Economic Development (CCRED) and a Senior Research Associate at the South African Research Chair in Industrial Development (SARChI-ID), both at the University of Johannesburg. Before joining CCRED, he was a Researcher on the Inclusive Digital Model (IDMODEL) Project at the Technology and Management Centre for Development (TMCD), Oxford Department of International Development (ODID), University of Oxford. He was also a Global Excellence and Stature (GES) Fellow, and Open AIR’s Queen Elizabeth’s Scholar (QES) at the SARChI-ID. Elvis obtained his Ph.D. in Economics of Innovation, Policy Studies of Technical Change and Governance from the United Nations University (UNU-MERIT)/Maastricht University, The Netherlands. He researches broadly on development economics with interests in innovation, technological change, industrial development in developing countries. More about Elvis Avenyo