Commodity exports and labour productivity in the long run

ABSTRACT

Empirical analysis of dynamic panel data models shows that dependence on exports of ores and metals is associated with lower labour productivity. For other commodity groups, there is no statistically significant effect.

KEYWORDS:

• Labour productivity
• commodity dependence
• panel data

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• E24
• F43
• O47

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Janvier Nkurunziza for valuable comments and suggestions. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretariat or of UNCTAD Member Countries.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ Calculation on average commodity export share over the period 1995–2014 for 134 developing countries that are UN member states, excluding transition economies.

² https://www.conference-board.org/data/economydatabase.

³ http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=world-development-indicators.

⁴ Shares of total merchandise exports (i) agricultural raw materials (SITC section 2 excluding divisions 22, 27 and 28), (ii) ores and metals (SITC sections 27, 28 and 68), (iii) food (SITC sections 0, 1 and 4 and SITC division 22) and fuels (SITC section 3).

⁵ http://unctadstat.unctad.org/EN/.

⁶ The countries in the sample are listed in the appendix.