Growth and export performance of developing countries : is landlockedness destiny?

Abstract

This thesis investigates determinants of economic growth and export performance of landlocked developing countries (LLDCs). It consists of three research papers enveloped in a stage-setting introductory chapter and a concluding chapter which summarises the key findings and draws policy inferences. The three research papers are written in the form of self-contained essays, but taken together the findings indicate that even though landlockedness hampers a country’s economic growth in many ways, economic policy has the potential to minimise these adverse effects: landlockedness is not destiny. The first paper examines the impact of landlockedness on economic growth using a panel dataset covering 214 countries, including 34 landlocked developing countries, over the period 1980 – 2009. The key focus of the analysis is on the role of openness to foreign trade in determining differences in growth performance between landlocked developing countries as a group and other developing countries, and among landlocked countries themselves. The results indicate that generally landlockedness hampers economic growth, but landlocked countries have the potential to grow faster through greater openness to foreign trade, and through carrying out institutional reforms to improve the quality of governance, which help reducing trade costs. The second paper examines the determinants of export performance of developing countries, with emphasis on the implications of landlockedness, using a panel dataset covering the period from 1995 to 2010. The analysis is conducted within the standard gravity modelling framework. The results indicate that although