Fish Exports and the Growth of the Agricultural Sector: The Case of South and Southeast Asian Countries

Md Ali Emam, Markus Leibrecht and Tinggui Chen
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Md Ali Emam: Economics and Management, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China
Markus Leibrecht: Economics and Management, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China
Tinggui Chen: Economics and Management, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 20, 1-14

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.

Keywords: fish exports; agricultural sector; export-led growth; panel cointegration; pooled mean groups estimator; sustainable development; Granger-causality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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