Firms and the global crisis: French exports in the turmoil
Jean-Charles Bricongne, Lionel Fontagné, Guillaume Gaulier, Daria Taglioni and Vincent Vicard
December 2009
Abstract
The unprecedented drop in international trade during the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of
2009 has mostly been analysed at the macroeconomic or sectoral level. However, heterogeneous
exporters in terms of productivity, size or external finance dependence should be hit differently by the
crisis. This issue is examined here using data on monthly exports at the product and destination level
for some 100,000 individual French exporters, up to 2009M4. We show that the drop in French
exports is mainly due to the intensive margin of large exporters. Small and large firms are evenly
affected when sectoral and geographical specialisations are controlled for. Lastly, firms (small and
large) in sectors structurally more dependent on external finance are the most affected by the crisis.
Keywords: Financial crisis, international trade, firms heterogeneity, intensive and extensive margins.
JEL Classification: F02, F10, G01.
