Abstract
The per-capita demand of fish and fish products, and paired to it, their production and trade, have substantially increased during the last few decades. For many developing countries these developments open a channel for sustainable economic progress. Against this background, this article investigates whether fish exports Granger-cause long-run economic growth of the agricultural sector (“fish export-led growth”) in a panel of eight South and Southeast Asian countries. A dynamic panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is estimated based on data for the years 2000 to 2018. The results indicate that fish exports have a significant positive impact on the growth of the agricultural sector in the long run. These findings apply to both the lower- and the upper-middle-income countries included in the analysis. Long-run Granger causality tests within a panel vector error correction model indicate that agricultural value added per worker reacts to deviations from the long-run equilibrium, whereas fish exports per worker are weakly exogenous. Thus, the paper finds supporting evidence for fish export-led growth. The paper concludes with some thoughts about how this finding can help policymakers in their attempt to induce sustainable agricultural development to eradicate poverty and to enhance living standards.
Highlights
Fish exports provide employment opportunities for millions of low-income families [10,11] and fish exports are a key source of foreign exchange earnings [1,12,13]
The findings of this study indicate the presence of a relationship between fish exports and the growth of the economy in the long run
Exports of fish and fish products may be a catalyst for the sustainable economic progress of developing countries
Summary
From 1961 to 2017 the average annual growth in per-capita demand of fish products was 2.4% in developing countries [1]. Fish products are the main source of protein for many less-developed countries [2]. The export of fish and fish products has become a lifeline for many coastal, riverine, insular, and lacustrine countries and regions [8]. The expansion and growth of the fishery sector may be a crucial part of economic development [8,9]. Fish products can help meet the growing demand of food in a world with a steadily and fast-growing population, for instance, by the expansion of economically important aquatic species, grown and harvested based on intensive and semi-intensive aquaculture practices [14]
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