What You Export Matters
CID Working Paper No. 123
Ricardo Hausmann, Jason Hwang, and Dani Rodrik
December 2005 (Revised March 2006)
Abstract
When local cost discovery generates knowledge spillovers, specialization patterns become partly indeterminate and the mix of goods that a country produces may have important implications for economic growth. We demonstrate this proposition formally and adduce some empirical support for it. We construct an index of the "income level of a country's exports," document its properties, and show that it predicts subsequent economic growth.
Keywords: specialization, productivity, growth
JEL codes: F1, O4