文档介绍：Export Structure, Export Flexibility and
Competitiveness
By
Kurt W. Rothschild
Contents: I. The Shape of Export Functions. -- II. Structure and
Competition: Are They Separable? -- III. A Look at Western European
Export Developments. -- IV. Conclusion.
I. The Shape of Export Functions
ot so long ago -- at the beginning of the sixties -- a,well-known
expert on international trade literature could write: Economics
N is only now making the vital transition from qualitative tech-
niques; at this stage few econometricians are ready to measure the weight
of the various factors that determine a country's exports and imports and
few economists are ready to accept as definitive the measurements set
forth by their more daring colleagues ''x.
Since then a profound change has taken place as far as the first part
of the statement goes. There is no shortage now of all sorts of export and
import functions covering a multitude of countries and periods *. While
they differ both with regard to structure and to the type of variables
included, most of them have one thing mon: they take their lead
-- more or less pragmatically, explicitly or implicitly -- from some
Remark: This study has been supported by a grant from the Austrian Fonds zur Far-
derung der wissenscha#lichen Forschung. My thanks are also due to Mag. Monika Hutter
and Mag. Wilfried Maschtera for assistance in statistical putational activities.
x Charles P. Kiudleberger, Foreign Trade and the National Economy, International
mittee parative Economics, Studies parative Economics, New
Haven and London, x952, p. 5.
2 Apart from numerous export functions included in macro-economic models there
exists a vast specialised literature containing quantitative "explanations" of exports, too
vast to be enumerated here. Important work has been done in anisations
(IMF, OECD), in institutes and by individual researchers. -- Some typical export functions
are de