Auteurs

The Relationship between Export Diversification & Economic Growth: A Comparative Analysis with a Focus on Small Island States

“…For instance, in a highly cited study, Rose [28], using panel data for 200 countries over forty years, finds no evidence that country size matters for economic outcomes. Conversely, Alouini and Hubert [29], using multiple measures for country size (including population, GDP and arable land) contradicted Rose [28], finding a significant negative conditional correlation between country size and GDP growth for all countries. Similarly, Alesina et al [27], while not indicating the direction of impact, also find that size matters for economic performance.…”

“…In this section, we briefly describe the data used in the paper. We use annual data on 100 countries inclusive of 32 SIDS, 10 Small Advanced States (SAS), 29 Other Advanced States (OAS) and 29 Other Developing States (ODS) (see Appendix B) spanning the 46-year period from 1970 to 2015. Although our sample data spans 1970 to 2015, which is reflected in the descriptive statistics, due to the unavailability of data on some variables required for the empirical models, only data on 69 countries inclusive of 14 SIDS, five (5) SAS, 27 OAS and 23 ODS from 1995 to 2007 are utilized in the econometric models.…”

“…The findings as it relates to the diversification-economic growth nexus is consistent with previous researchers including Al-Marhubi [1], Imbs and Wacziarg [14], Hesse [6] and others who find the relationship to be economically large. However, the moderating effect of population on the export diversification-economic growth relationship is particularly interesting and noteworthy as the debate regarding the relative importance of country size to economic growth continues unabated with some researchers [21], [28], [30]- [32] finding that size does not matter, while others [27], [29] find that it does.…”