When quality management helps agri-food firms to export

This article examines the impact of firms’ quality policies on export performance. Using French administrative data at the employee and firm levels, we assess the level of firms’ commitment to issues related to product reliability and safety through the presence of quality management personnel. We merge these data with French customs data, which provide the value and quantity of exports for each firm by product and destination. We show that firms with quality management employees export higher volumes and have longer trade relationships, especially in non-European markets with stringent standards (higher number of sanitary and phytosanitary or technical measures). Overall, our paper highlights the role of agri-food firms’ ”quality investment” in export performance.