Proximity and Horizontal Policies: The Backbone of Export Diversification

Download or read book Proximity and Horizontal Policies: The Backbone of Export Diversification written by Mr. Gonzalo Salinas and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-03-05 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The lack of a clear link between general economic fundamentals and export diversification indicators in the literature has fueled the believe that industrial policies are an absolute requisite to diversify exports. This paper, however, does find a strong statistical connection between horizontal policies and diversification by making two novel changes to traditional methodologies: using export categories that lead to diversification (for example, manufactures) as dependent variables, and using a gravity-equation regression setting. Proximity to other economies explains about a third of cross-country heterogeneity in targeted exports, and four fifths together with horizontal policies. Australia, Chile, and New Zealand emerge as new role models for diversification policies.