Measuring export concentration for identifying least developed countries

Matthias Bruckner

CDP Background Papers from United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs

Abstract: Export concentration has long been recognized as a key indicator of the development progress of least developed countries (LDCs). This paper presents the refined export concentration index recently included in the criteria used for identifying LDCs. The refined index is a Theil index that covers both concentration in the basket of exported products and concentration in the set of export markets, thereby capturing two dimensions of vulnerability due to undiversified export structures. The paper shows that relative to other developing countries, LDCs are less diversified both in terms of export products and export markets, contributing to their heightened vulnerability.

Keywords: Least Developed Countries; Export concentration; Vulnerability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 O19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-10
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:une:cpaper:059

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