  Existing literature at the nexus of firm productivity and export behavior
mostly focuses on "learning by exporting," whereby firms can improve their
performance by engaging in exports. Whereas, the secondary channel of learning
via cross-firm spillovers from exporting peers, or "learning from exporters,"
has largely been neglected. Omitting this important mechanism, which can
benefit both exporters and non-exporters, may provide an incomplete assessment
of the total productivity benefits of exporting. In this paper, we develop a
unified empirical framework for productivity measurement that explicitly
accommodates both channels. To do this, we formalize the evolution of firm
productivity as an export-controlled process, allowing future productivity to
be affected by both the firm's own export behavior as well as export behavior
of spatially proximate, same-industry peers. This facilitates a simultaneous,
"internally consistent" identification of firm productivity and the
corresponding effects of exporting. We apply our methodology to a panel of
manufacturing plants in Chile in 1995-2007 and find significant evidence in
support of both direct and spillover effects of exporting that substantially
boost the productivity of domestic firms.
