Discovery and Development: AnEmpricial Exploration of "New" Products

Klinger, Bailey ; Lederman, Daniel

World Bank, Washington, D.C.

关键词: PRODUCTS;    INDUSTRIES;    ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT;    ECONOMIC DISCOVERY;    ENTREPRENEURS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-3450
RP-ID  :  WPS3450

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The authors use disaggregated exportdata to explore the relationship between economic discoveryand economic development. They find that discoveries, orepisodes, when countries begin exporting a new product arenot limited to so-called "dynamic" industries.Rather, they also occur in traditional sectors such asagriculture. In addition, the data suggest discovery is acomponent of the stages of productive diversification thatoccur with development, following a consistentpattern-discovery activity peaks at the lower-middle incomelevel and then declines. Based on this pattern, the authorsshow that discovery in the 1990s occurred with a higher thanexpected frequency in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, andlower than expected frequency in Sub-Saharan Africa.Discovery is not found to be a product of structuraltransformation based on changing factor endowments acrossincome levels. Beyond export growth, population, anddevelopment, there are no significant and positiverelationships between the expected drivers ofentrepreneurship and the frequency of discovery. Combinedwith the finding that higher absorptive capacity and lowerbarriers to entry are associated with a reduction indiscovery, this suggests that market failures arising fromimitation and free-riding may be inhibiting the emergence ofnew export products in developing countries.