Overall trade specialization and economic development: countries diversify

Abstract: This paper provides evidence for an aspect of trade often disregarded in international trade research: countries' sectoral export diversification. The results of our semiparametric empirical analysis show that, on average, countries do not specialize; on the contrary, they diversify. Our results are robust for different statistical indices used to measure trade specialization, for the level of sectoral aggregation, and for the level of smoothing in the nonparametric term associated with per capita income. Using a generalized additive model (GAM) with country-specific fixed effects it can be shown that, controlling for countries’ heterogeneity, sectoral export diversification increases with income

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Postprint ; begutachtet (peer reviewed) ; In: Review of World Economics ; 145 (2009) 1 ; 37-55

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Handel, Kommunikation, Verkehr

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Mannheim
• (when): 2009
• Creator: Benedictis, Luca ; Gallegati, Marco ; Tamberi, Massimo

Further information

• DOI: 10.1007/s10290-009-0007-4
• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-203154
• Rights: Open Access unbekannt; Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 15.08.2025, 7:34 AM CEST