This paper empirically evaluates the effects of antidumping measures on the
exports of protected firms. While antidumping protection raises the domestic
sales of the more “traditional” non-exporting firms on the protected market with
about 5%, it negatively affects the firm-level exports of similar products as the
protected ones. Export sales of protected firms fall by almost 8% compared to
a relevant control group of unprotected firms. The drop in firm-level exports
more than doubles for firms that are global, i.e. firms with foreign affiliates.
Measured at the product-level, extra-EU exports of goods protected by
antidumping fall by 36% while exports to target countries fall by as much as
66% following protection. Protection also affects the extensive margin of
exporters but to a lesser extent. Initial exporters face a marginally higher
probability to stop exporting during protection compared to unprotected firms.
Finally, we find that the productivity of exporters falls while that of nonexporters
rises during antidumping protection. We offer a number of plausible
explanations for our findings arising from the heterogeneous firm literature.
We also discuss the importance of our findings for policy.