Neighbors and the Evolution of the Comparative Advantage of Nations: Evidence of International Knowledge Diffusion?

Dany Bahar, Ricardo Hausmann and Cesar Hidalgo

Working Paper Series from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government

Abstract: The literature on knowledge diffusion shows that it decays strongly with distance. In this paper we document that the probability that a product is added to a country's export basket is, on average, 65% larger if a neighboring country is a successful exporter of that same product. For existing products, having a neighbor with comparative advantage in them is associated with a growth of exports that is higher by 1.5 percent per annum. While these results could be driven by a common third factor that escapes our controls, they are what would be expected from the localized character of knowledge diffusion.

JEL-codes: F10 F62 F63 O31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-knm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/work ... ?PubId=9087&type=WPN

Related works:
Journal Article: Neighbors and the evolution of the comparative advantage of nations: Evidence of international knowledge diffusion? (2014)
Working Paper: Neighbors and the Evolution of the Comparative Advantage of Nations: Evidence of International Knowledge Diffusion? (2012)
Working Paper: Neighbors and the Evolution of the Comparative Advantage of Nations: Evidence of International Knowledge Diffusion? (2012)
Working Paper: Neighbors and the Evolution of the Comparative Advantage of Nations: Evidence of International Knowledge Diffusion?
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp13-025

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().