Searching for buyers in international markets.

Summary This thesis studies the meeting and matching between French firms and their buyers on international markets. Building a portfolio of foreign buyers is a crucial component of exporters' growth: sales to new buyers explain nearly 50% of the differences in export growth rates between French firms in the medium term. However, in international markets, geographical distance, cultural and institutional differences exacerbate the difficulties that firms have in finding potential buyers, Rauch (2001), Allen (2014) and Arkolakis (2010). This thesis studies and quantifies the effect of informational barriers and financial constraints that firms face when canvassing foreign buyers.This thesis relies on exhaustive data detailing all French intra-community exports over the last twenty years. In particular, for each transaction, the exporting French firm, the product and the amount of the transaction as well as the buyer by its intra-Community VAT number are identified.The first chapter examines how search frictions in international goods markets can distort competition between firms with heterogeneous productivity. The second chapter examines the role of liquidity constraints in building a customer base abroad. The final chapter examines the importance of managers' networks and contacts in the expansion of firms' exports.