Manufactured Export Performance Research Articles

Structural Policies for the International Competitiveness in Manufacturing: the Case of Cameroon

In this study, a new sample of 38 manufacturing firms from Cameroon is examined for the period 1980-95. A production function and an export function are estimated in order to study the determinants of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and export performance. The results demonstrate a mutually reinforcing relation between productivity and manufacturing export performance. Moreover, the study provides evidence indicating that adequate management of the real exchange rate is a crucial factor for the promotion of manufacturing exports. The performance of the manufacturing sector in Cameroon has deteriorated substantially since the mid 1980s. This decline is to a large degree explained by Dutch disease symptoms and inward looking policies for the manufacturing sector, resulting in a highly overvalued Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER). Based on the estimated export and production functions, a model is constructed to assess the cost of this REER evaluation, both in terms of productivity and exports.

Politique de change et exportations de produits manufacturés en Afrique subsaharienne

Exchange Rate Management and Manufactured Exports in Sub-Saharan Africa This paper empirically assesses the impact of exchange rate policy on manufactured export performance on a panel of major Sub-Saharan Africa countries over the 1970-1992 period. The impact of exchange rate policy is examined through the effect of three indicators : real effective exchange rate (RER) changes, RER volatility, and (model-based measures of) RER misalignment. Export supply equations are estimated for three manufactured sectors (textile, chemicals, and metals) and two exchange rate regimes : a fixed rates regime represented by six CFA countries and a more flexible rates regime represented by five non-CFA countries. It is shown that exchange rate management matters for export performance. This is evidenced both by the significant impact of changes in the real effective exchange rate and by the negative influence exerted independently by real exchange rate misalignment. On the basis of this evidence we provide estimates of the losses in export shares induced by exchange-rate misalignment. African countries that have been successful in promoting manufactured exports have implemented cautious exchange-rate policies, leading to steadily declining real exchange-rate overvaluation.

Foreign Direct Investment and State Export Performance

Since the early 1980s, there has been widespread debate over the impacts of rising levels of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on the U.S. economy. A frequently noted, but little studied, issue within the debate is the impact of FDI on U.S. foreign trade, and particularly, on the foreign trade of U.S. regions. This study assesses the effects of FDI on the manufacturing export performance of U.S. states during the period from 1980 to 1991. Results indicate that increased levels of FDI are positively related to future improvements in state manufacturing export performance.

A causality analysis of growth and export performance

This study examines both bivariate causal relationships between manufactured export performance and manufactured output growth and trivariate causal relationships between manufactured exports, investment, and manufactured output. Before the causality testing, integration and cointegration processes are tested in order to select the appropriate functional form. The causality testing process employs the vector autoregression (VAR) approach. Little evidence is found in the bivariate causal results and mixed evidence of causal relationships is found in the trivariate testing results.

Technological Capabilities at the National Level: An International Comparison of Manufacturing Export Performance

A large amount of research is showing that technological capabilities (TCs), required to operate a technology efficiently and accomplish any process of technological change, largely explain different productivity levels and industrial performance at the firm-level (Enos, 1991, Lall,1992). In this paper we extend the concept of technological capability to the national level, and analyze its major determinants. The creation of TC depends on a number of factors. They can be grouped in three subsets of factors: incentives, capabilities and institutions. The interaction among them crucially affects the effectiveness of the efforts to create TC. We use this national technological capability (NTC) approach to assess the different manufacturing export performance recorded in a small sample of developing countries (Chile, Colombia, South Korea, Thailand). Different levels of NTC have been detected by looking at how the policies affecting the creation and acquisition of NTC have been carried out in the sample countries over the last two decades. Different incentive systems, investments in capability building, institutional structures and interventions have been observed. These factors remarkably contribute to an explanation of the differential performance in exporting

Structural shifts in the manufacturing export performance of oecd economies

AbstractThis paper identifies structural shifts in manufacturing export performance of the major OECD economies. The particular emphasis of this study is to see whether the longer‐run responses of a country's exports to the growth in world demand have undergone trend changes. The econometric work focuses on the time variation in income elasticities from an export demand model over the period 1963–89. It thus covers a period in which there was a substantial slow‐down in world economic growth and in which the manufacturing sectors in advanced economies underwent substantial restructuring in the wake of the two oil‐price shocks and the competitive challenges of Japan and the NICs. The exercise attempted to evaluate the relative successes and failures of the different OECD economies to maintain or improve their positions in the ‘higher quality’ (income elastic) segments of world trade. Evidence was found for trend improvements in the income elasticity for UK exports from the early 1980s onwards and a trend decline for that of the US over the same period. The effects of non‐tariff protection against Japanese exports also showed up in our results and an attempt was made to separately identify its effects.

Market structure and LDCs' manufactured export performance

Typically, trade theory and analysis of domestic market structure have proceeded separately. This paper considers LDCs' performance in exporting manufactured products using a model which embraces customary explanatory variables, namely factor endowments, scale economies and skill levels, and a market structure variable. In marked contrast to practice in other empirical studies the data employed are not based on coefficients derived from US industries but are taken from local industrial censuses undertaken by individual countries. Differences in results across countries indicate the need for care in determining policy prescriptions for individual countries with respect to the degree of competition.

Determinants of manufactured export performance in low-income Africa: Kenya and Tanzania

This paper applies empirical trade theory to explaining the revealed comparative advantage in manufactured exports of Kenya and Tanzania. Exports are treated as a whole and also distinguished by destination (developed countries, developing countries and Africa). The undeveloped industrial and trade structures of these countries lead to low explanatory power of the equations, but the results for individual variables are generally expected and of interest.

Manufactured export promotion in a semi‐industrialized economy: The Brazilian case

There is evidence to suggest that in Brazil import substituting industrialization has brought an increased dependence on the foreign sector. Further growth is highly dependent upon the ability to increase exports, and economic policy exercises an important function in such export expansion. In an attempt to analyse the behaviour of manufactured exports, a regression model, complemented with in‐depth interviews with individual firms, is posited and tested with Brazilian data. In analysing policy variables and other determining factors in terms of their effects on manufactured export performance, it is found that exchange rate policy, tax incentives, LAFTA, and a recession‐boom effect have all played important roles in shaping Brazilian industrial export growth.