Export quality in advanced and developing economies: Evidence from a new dataset

Christian Henn, Chris Papageorgiou () and Nikola Spatafora

No ERSD-2015-02, WTO Staff Working Papers from World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division

Abstract: This paper develops new estimates of export quality, far more extensive than previous efforts, covering 178 countries and hundreds of products during the period 1962-2010. It finds that quality upgrading is particularly rapid during the early stages of development, with the process largely completed as a country reaches upper middle-income status. There is significant crosscountry heterogeneity in the growth rate of quality. Within any given product line, quality converges over time to the world frontier. Institutional quality, liberal trade policies, FDI inflows, and human capital all promote quality upgrading, although their impact varies across sectors. The results suggest that reducing barriers to entry into new sectors can allow economies to benefit from rapid quality convergence over time.

Keywords: Volumes; Export prices; Quality ladders; Upgrading; Sector development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 L15 O11 O14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

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https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/107676/1/819620033.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Export Quality in Advanced and Developing Economies: Evidence from a New Data Set (2020)
Working Paper: Export quality in advanced and developing economies: evidence from a new data set (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:wtowps:ersd201502

DOI: 10.30875/72e7d4c3-en

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