Agricultural Export Shocks and Economic Development

Talk by Stefanie Pizzella (Leibniz University Hannover) as part of the Research Seminar Series of the IOS Economics Department.

We investigate the effect of agricultural export windfalls on economic development. Evidence abounds that export growth specifically, and globalization in general, foster economic development. Due to the inherent endogeneity between exports and economic development, causal evidence remains scarce. We exploit severe droughts in third countries to isolate quasi-exogenous variation in demand for a country's agricultural exports, and estimate the effect of increased agricultural exports on economic growth at the national level. Our preliminary results suggest that increased export volumes significantly benefit consumption expenditures.