Thesmar and Mathias Thoenig The development of job skills and the export business is observed for a panel of approximately 5,900 French firms surveyed from 1988 to 1992. The findings show that a prerequisite for exporting is a significant increase in job skills levels in the management and commercial development departments compared with skills required for products sold on the domestic market. Manufacturing methods also need to be richer in skills, but to a lesser extent that is harder to identify statisti-cally. This increase appears to be as large for exports to devel-oped countries as for exports to developing countries. The globalisation of trade is primarily a factor for social change, because it encourages businesses to reorganise to take advantage of new commercial prospects.