Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-2020
Abstract
Economic development is the process of structural transformation as countries’ economic structure diversify from agriculture and manufacturing to service sector. In order to ensure this transformation, and hence, stable growth, economies should upgrade their productive structure, moving from lower to higher value-added products. Developing countries may use the advantage of being the follower, i.e., learning know-how and spillover effects to transform the production facility to higher sophistication levels. Open economic structure further increases diffusion of technology from the developed world. However, exporting more sophisticated products is another level together with the competition in the global markets. Specialization on some specific products may provide productivity whereas some may not which highlights the importance of good governance by choosing optimal policies. An index for the product complexity (PCI) is designed by Hausmann et al. (2011) that calculates the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters. In the same manner, economic complexity index (ECI) measures the knowledge intensity of an economy by considering the knowledge intensity of the products it exports. These annual indices enables country and product comparisons in terms of complexity and hence provides information for policy-makers. This study measures export sophistication for Middle East and North African countries (MENA) to make a comparison between region countries for the period of 2004-2016. We also examine the effect on export sophistication on economic growth for MENA region and confirm Hausmann et al. (2007) that export goods associated with higher productivity grow more. T
Journal Title
Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies
ISSN
2334-282X
Publisher
Middle East Economic Association and Loyola University Chicago
Volume
22
Issue
1
Recommended Citation
Aslanoğlu, Erhan; Erdoğan, Oral; and Deniz, Pınar, "Export Sophistication for MENA Countries". Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies, electronic journal, 22, 1, Middle East Economic Association and Loyola University Chicago, 2020, http://www.luc.edu/orgs/meea/
Creative Commons License
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Copyright Statement
© The Author(s), 2020
Comments
Presentation of the articles in the Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies was made possible by a limited license granted to Loyola University Chicago and Middle East Economics Association from the authors who have retained all copyrights in the articles.