Title: The foreign service and foreign trade
First published: 2005
Description: "As communication costs fall, foreign embassies and consulates have lost much of their role in decision-making and information-gathering.  Accordingly, foreign services are increasingly marketing themselves as agents of export promotion.  I investigate whether exports are in fact systematically associated with diplomatic representation abroad.  I use a recent cross-section of data covering twenty-two large exporters and two-hundred import destinations.  Bilateral exports rise by approximately 6-10% for each additional consulate abroad, controlling for a host of other features including reverse causality.  The effect varies by exporter, and is non-linear; consulates have smaller effects than the creation of an embassy"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Subjects: Diplomatic and consular service, Foreign trade promotion
LC classification: HB1