Abstract
Using product-level data at the six-digit level of the HS classification, we examine the impact of product characteristics, namely quality and sophistication on the survival of exports to the United States over the period 1995-2017. Unlike previous studies, we derive econometrically a measure of product quality based on Khandelwal, Schott and Wei (2013)'s approach and show that exporting higher quality goods decreases the probability of failure. We also find that exporting highly sophisticated products decreases the probability of leaving the US market. However, if the level of sophistication is abnormally high compared to that of the exporter's average export basket, the negative effect of product sophistication on the probability of failure is reduced. The robustness checks confirm our findings.