Export Orientation: Pathway or Artifact?

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Abstract
This study investigates the theoretical and empirical claims made for “export-oriented industrialization,” a development policy often promoted for a wide range of societies undertaking industrialization. Using Balassa's (1981) macroeconomic and policy data for thirty-four societies, we reexamine prominent explanations of the importance of export orientation. We demonstrate that spatial autocorrelation dominates Balassa's empirical results and conclude that regional variables play an important role in explaining revealed comparative advantage. These results may help to explain why international funding agencies' push to promote export-oriented industrialization strategies across the board has not been uniformly successful. We speculate briefly about the implications of this finding.

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