Creative industries and economic growth: stability of creative products exports earnings

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe contribution of creative goods and services has been recognised as an important pathway to economic development. Both transnational organisations and national governments have been paying more attention to the creative industries. We use a sample of 57 countries, accounting for over 90% of creative products exports, over the period 2003–2011, to assess the stability of earnings from exports of creative products. We assess the sensitivity of countries’ exports of creative products to fluctuations in the global trade of creative products, using the Single Index Model (SIM) to analyse the export performance of countries’ export portfolios of creative products. Our results indicate that there are vast differences in the export performance of countries in our sample, indicating that the composition of a country's creative exports portfolio, i.e. what it exports, has a direct impact on the performance of the export portfolio of creative products. Our study fills the lacuna of empirical examinations of creative products and their exports earnings. We discuss implications for governmental – national and local – policy-makers, export promotions policies, their roles in encouraging and nurturing the creative industries, and businesses and artisans themselves. The recognition of the importance of the creative industries is most gratifying.