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Despite multiple past efforts, fragile Sub-Saharan African economies such as those of Mali, Chad, Niger, and Guinea still rank among the least diversified worldwide, with natural resources constituting a high share of their gross domestic product or exports. Large-scale production of gold for Mali, oil for Chad, uranium for Niger, and bauxite for Guinea offers substantial opportunities, but also has major shortcomings. Conclusive evidence shows poor economic performance by resource-rich but fragile Sub-Saharan African countries. The primary reason is not only their high vulnerability to external shocks, but the greed or grievances that typically lead to rents appropriation by a small group of elites in countries that are prone to conflict.Leveraging Export Diversifi cation in Fragile Countries explores the following questions: What are Mali's, Chad's, Niger's, and Guinea's main constraints to export diversification as perceived by key exporting firms? How it could be beneficial for these countries to target certain emerging export products? Are their current interventions to promote global value chain (GVC) adequate? What lessons can be extracted from specific cases? How can trade and logistic policies favor (or hamper) export diversification "led growth?The book lays the groundwork for effective step-by-step multidimensional policies to propel export diversification in fragile economies that are hindered not only by poor governance and weak institutions, but also by their landlocked position (except Guinea), small domestic markets, and business-unfriendly environments. Recognizing that traditional project interventions in these countries have had limited success, mainly due to their unidimensional focus on single components of an agricultural value chain, the book proposes a GVC 2.0 cluster-based approach to export diversification, in which complementary efforts attract foreign firms and public investment in support of agribusiness. Promising pilot examples of joint implementation plans among multiple donors, risk-sharing facilities, and agribusiness clusters provide valuable insights into recent global value chain developer interventions.

Doing Business --- Enterprise Surveys --- Export Diversification --- Fragile Economies --- Global Value Chains --- Growth --- Product Space Analysis --- Productivity --- Structural Transformation --- Trade Logistics

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The landlocked and fragile countries Mali, Niger, and Chad have suffered, to varying degrees, from Dutch Disease, with high export concentration in natural resource commodities and in a few foreign markets, and little development of their non-resource economies. The three countries' ability to create a sustainable path to economic growth and poverty reduction is inextricably linked to their connectivity with external markets, in the region and beyond. Thus, Mali, Niger, and Chad are first challenged by their geography-their landlocked nature creates a barrier to market access beyond their immediate neighbors, while their vast and thinly populated lands serve to isolate the most vulnerable communities from external and internal markets. Adding to these geographic disadvantages, the incentive environment-defined by high and variable customs common external tariff regimes resulting from multiple overlapping regional trade arrangements-places a wedge between domestic and international prices that provides a disincentive to exports in favor of non-tradable and domestic-oriented sectors. By bringing greater coherence and convergence between the many common external tariff regimes in operation and the rationalization of their structures, and improving connectivity within and between markets, Mali, Niger, and Chad can better promote the reallocation of resources toward tradable goods and services, putting the countries on a path toward greater economic inclusion and sustainable growth.

Conflict and Development --- Empirical Study --- Export Competitiveness --- Export Diversification --- Fragile States --- International Economics and Trade --- Landlocked State --- Trade --- Trade Policy

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This paper reviews the determinants of Latin America's uneven growth based on an accounting decomposition that breaks down countries' growth (relative to the world) into three trade-related channels: (i) an export pull measuring the traction exerted by the country's exports, (ii) an external leverage measuring the impact of the country's use of external resources, and (iii) a domestic response measuring the impact of the country's imports on its domestic income. This decomposition brings to light three regional growth dynamics: the first is centered on commodities and South America, the second on manufactures and Mexico, and the third on services and Central America. The evidence points toward the need for a trade-oriented growth agenda that puts a premium on raising exports and making countries more attractive to people, not just capital. The latter in turn adds urgency to healing the region's social fractures and dealing with its institutional weaknesses.

Commodities --- Commodity Dependence --- Convergence --- Export Diversification --- Export-Led Growth --- Growth --- Import Substituting --- International Economics and Trade --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Natural Resource Curse --- Trade Liberalization

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The paper considers concepts of economic diversification with respect to exports (including service sectors) for small states. We assessed the economic performance of different groups of 34 small states over the period of 1990-2015 and found those more diversified experienced lower output volatility and higher average growth than most other small states. Our findings are consistent with conventional economic theories but we found that export diversification has a more significant impact on reducing output volatility than improving long run growth in small states. Diversification requires fundamental changes and should be contemplated in the context of a cohesive development strategy.

Exports and Imports --- Industries: Hospital,Travel and Tourism --- Trade: General --- Neoclassical Models of Trade --- Sports --- Gambling --- Restaurants --- Recreation --- Tourism --- International economics --- Hospitality, leisure & tourism industries --- Export diversification --- Exports --- Export earnings --- Comparative advantage --- International trade --- Economic sectors --- Mauritius

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This study considers the role of export diversification in determining trade outcomes during the global financial crisis. The impact of export diversification (or concentration) is measured by assessing three different dimensions of specialization. First, concentration by geographic destination is considered; that is, whether the bulk of exports from a country go to many or few trading partners. Second, industry/sectoral concentration is considered; that is, whether a country’s exports are scattered across many industries and sectors, or concentrated in just a few. Third, product concentration is considered; that is, whether countries produce many products within their export sectors or just a few. The workhorse gravity trade model is adapted with trade diversification as an additional trade cost, and the model solution is empirically tested on a dataset containing over 500 thousand observations for Latin America. Industry and product concentration are found to significantly affect the resilience of Latin American countries’ trade during the global financial crisis - increasing the diversity of both export sectors and export products within sectors by one standard deviation reduces the quarterly decline in exports by approximately 4.7 percent. Diversifying exports across many different trading partners is not found to significantly affect outcomes.

Diversification in industry. --- Industrial diversification --- Product diversification --- Input-output analysis --- Barriers to entry (Industrial organization) --- Multiproduct firms --- Investments: Commodities --- Exports and Imports --- Macroeconomics --- Trade: General --- Commodity Markets --- Trade Policy --- International Trade Organizations --- International economics --- Investment & securities --- Exports --- Export diversification --- Plurilateral trade --- Commodity prices --- Commodities --- International trade --- Prices --- Commercial products --- Brazil