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 com-
ponent. 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 whenOECD and BRIC countries are considered separately.
Similar results are obtained by running the same regres-
sion for each of the three exporting countries taken indi-
vidually (results not shown).4 Thus, our findings provide
a 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.