Volume 13 
Issue 1 Issue 1 - 2 Article 1 
12-21-2011 
EBR Special issue foreword 
Jože P. Damijan 
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Recommended Citation 
P. Damijan, J. (2011). EBR Special issue foreword. Economic and Business Review, 13(1). https://doi.org/
10.15458/2335-4216.1216 
This Editorial is brought to you for free and open access by Economic and Business Review. It has been accepted 
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5      ECONOMIC AND BUSINESS REVIEW  |  VOL. 13  |  No.  1-2  |  2011  |  3
EBR Special Issue
Foreword 
Sizable empirical research in international trade literature in the last decade and a half 
related to the issue of performance of firms engaged in multinational activities. Stud-
ies of multinational firms documented superior peformance of firms that are part of 
a multinational company by highlighting ownership specific advantages. New vawe of 
empirical research then started to unveil significant differences between exporters and 
firms serving domestic markets only. This work was formalized by the number of theo-
retical models in the tradition of Melitz (2003) with heterogeneous firms and randomly 
assigned productivities. 
A number of issues in the field remained unresolved or require further research. These 
issues involve the existence of learning-by-exporting, proper measuring of productivity 
premia, study of firms' extensive export margins, impact of imports on firm performance 
and export scope, differences in export behavior of manufacturing and services firms, 
relationship between engagement in international trade and financial constraints, etc.
This special issue explores further some of these issues. Anže Burger, Črt Kostevc and 
Sašo Polanec study the theoretical foundations for proper productivity measurement of 
internationalized firms. Alexander Vogel and Joachim Wagner investigate some new 
econometric techniques for robust estimations of exporter productivity premia. László 
Halpern and Balázs Muraközy study the relationship between firm size and extensive 
margin of Hungarian exporters. Tanja Grublješič and Jože Damijan investigate differ-
ences in export behavior of services and manufacturing firms in Slovenia. John Romalis 
explores proper valuation of foreign ownership. Finally, Arjana Brezigar-Masten, Fab-
rizio Coricelli and Igor Masten study financial integration and financial development in 
transition economies and the implications of financial crises.
Jože P. Damijan
Associate editor