Abstract
We use monthly firm-level exports and imports of French firms over 1993-2020 -- which includes two major global crises -- matched with additional administrative firm-level data. We uncover four stlized facts about the role of large firms in aggregate exports concerning 1) the granular residual of aggregate exports; 2) the loadings of large firms on common shocks; 3) the reaction of top expoters to common shocks; and 4) the channels of their stronger response. These results suggest that idiosyncratic reactions of large firms to common shocks matter for aggregate export fluctuations. The readme indicates how getting access to confidential data, the non-confidential data being provided here.