Is publicly-reported firm-level trade data reliable? Evidence from the UK

In this paper we compare firms’ self-reported overseas sales, as reported in a commonly used UK financial reporting dataset, with their actual exports, as reported by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Finding that these flows are in several dimensions quite different, we then explore the implications of these differences more formally. Since several studies within the international trade literature report findings based on the self-reported export values in financial datasets, we discuss these findings in light of the departure of financial dataset-based exports from “true” (HMRC) export values.