Policy Issue:
Firms may face short term barriers when deciding to become exporters. Their production costs may be too high to compete with international prices, or they may perceive quality standard testing to be too risky of an investment. At the same time, the Tunisian government is keen to see more firms become exporters, tapping into international markets for further growth. The government wishes to see its firms produce higher value-added goods.
This study is investigating whether rebates for exports and matching grants can lower these initial barriers, nudging domestic-oriented firms to being exporting. It pilots two variations of a matching grant to answer: (i) does export subsidy rebates encourage firms to increase export volume, export new product variety, and/or export to new (advanced) markets, and (ii) does subsidizing the costs to obtain quality standards certificates and accreditation help firms to export to new markets or new product variety.