Investigates the time series relationship between export earnings
instability and instability in receipts from international tourism for
Singapore between 1972 and 1988. Computes four standardized instability
indexes for both merchandize exports and international travel receipts,
having suitably adjusted the official export series for re‐exports and
corrected the two data series for trend. There is some support for the
view that export receipts are more unstable than tourism receipts.
Although exports are generally more unstable over the whole period, they
were relatively more unstable in the early to mid‐1970s during a period
of international instability. Tourism receipts, on the other hand, were
relatively more unstable in the 1980s, partly as a result of world
recession, but also because of structural problems in the tourism
industry in Singapore. Also finds that the development of the tourism
sector in Singapore has exerted a net destabilizing effect on total
exports of goods and services.