Service exporters in ICT-industries: measuring digital service trade of Estonia

Abstract

In the ecosystem of digital and green transition service exporters play a vital role, particularly in exporting highly valued information and communication technology (ICT) services. In 2020, after the COVID-19 outbreak, Estonia’s service exports declined by 20% while ICT service exports increased by 12% compared to 2019. This shows that Estonian ICT firms adapted quickly to seize the opportunities brought by the pandemic to retain their competitiveness. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate the characteristics (size, ownership and export intensity) of the Estonian firms. The study also contributes to the EU´s objective to promote greater transparency on service traders (European Commission, 2021), as we provide new information for policy-makers and support the Estonian and European digital agendas (Estonia, 2018; European Commission, 2020, 2021). Our findings show that among services exporters the firms that export ICT services are more export-intensive and smaller and have more foreign ownership than non-ICT firms.