Economies of scale in the provision of export services and informal face-to-face exchanges
of information about export markets may improve export performance of small firms located
in Marshallian districts (locales). This paper presents an empirical test of this hypothesis and finds
that geographical agglomeration of small-medium firms in a delimited area significantly affects
their export intensity and their probability of becoming exporters. The significance of geographical
agglomeration persists in spite of all controls which show how the dependent variable is also (positively)
affected by export subsidies, formal export cooperation among firms, cooperation in (and
quality of) innovation, size and age.
