Table 2 displays our main findings, obtained by testing whether the export price decrease due to the global crisis corresponds to a significant reduction in the quality component. First, results in column 1 confirm that, on average,export price shrank by 7.3%. However, when we regress the quality component on the crisis indicator, its estimated coefficient, although negative, is not statistically different from zero. Results in column 3 display a negative and
significant reduction in price-adjusted quality, providing further evidence that the decrease in the value of trade is not due to exporting lower quality products but to a genuine reduction in prices. Finally, columns 4–6 show that the above results do not change significantly when OECD and BRIC countries are considered separately. Similar results are obtained by running the same regression for each of the three exporting countries taken individually (results not shown).4 Thus, our findings providea broad confirmation that the export price turned down during the crisis, but fail to attribute this reduction to a variation in the quality of products. Thus, in line with the findings of Levchenko et al. (2011), we do not support the‘Collapse in Quality’ hypothesis.