But what is more important: overall export performance in France cannot adequately be explained by traditional factors. Estimations usually contain a noteworthy residual term. What accounts for it? Its reasons actually are more of a microeconomic nature, as has already been put forward by the French Council of Economic Analysis 1 .
Examples are product differentiation, technological progress, reputation, marketing, or the export readiness of SMEs. For instance, the figure for French firms that export is only 4%, compared with 11% in Germany. Moreover, French export firms are, on average, smaller than German ones. The upshot of this is that competitiveness is enhanced by firms, not in exchange rate markets.