Time zones and German exports: first evidence from firm-product level data

This paper uses a tailor-made new data set of 3,390,871 observations for German exports to non-EU countries at the firm-product-destination level in 2011 to investigate the link between the amount of firms’ exports and the difference in time zones between Germany and the destination countries. The results indicate that including firm and product level heterogeneity is important. When distance to destination countries is controlled for, time zones only decrease exports for smaller exporters and for intermediate goods. The quantity of exports declines with increasing time difference within a firm for a given product for exports to the West (where time difference to Germany is negative) but not the East.