Export Orientation and Productivity Growth of Canadian Food Manufacturing

This thesis examines the relationship between export orientation (i.e. the participation) and productivity in Canadian food manufacturing, and determines the sources of productivity growth (i.e. technical efficiency, scale efficiency, and technical change). The relationship between productivity and export orientation was studied through the learning-by-exporting and the self-selection hypotheses. The results suggest that exporters have higher levels of productivity than non-exporters, and more productive plants self-select into export markets, but there is no evidence of learning-by-exporting. On the other hand, stochastic frontier analysis was used to decompose multifactor productivity into technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change, and technical change. The findings suggest there was a decline in productivity during the study period mostly driven by a decline in technical change over the study period. The industry experienced an improvement in technical efficiency and scale efficiency.