destinations for each of the years where coverage is complete (2006 to 2009) as well as averages (mean and median) for the number of products per firm, the number of destinations per firm and the number of firms per destination. As mentioned in section 2, we analyze the entire population of legally exporting firms, meaning we know nothing about illegal, informal or non-exporting activities.

While the total figures show increases in almost every respect, the averages are more or less stable, even showing occasional decreases. The number of firms is highest in 2009 (608 exporters), but there are slightly fewer destinations than in 2008 (70 vs. 67 countries). The number of destinations seems surprisingly low, especially in 2006 (25), even for a landlocked country like Lao PDR.

The bottom part of Table 1 shows similar descriptive statistics for six other countries, in years where Lao data is available, in order to put this new data into perspective. Comparisons can only be made where equivalent data is available: unfortunately this precludes comparisons with regional competitors to Laos. A high degree of heterogeneity is observed: high-income countries have many more firms active in exporting (Portugal has over 40 times the Lao average), but so does Malawi when compared to Mali, even though both are land-locked African countries with similar-size populations; Portuguese firms export an average number of products within our small cross-country sample, while the Dominican Republic produces ~2.5 times as many. Portugal has twice as many destinations as Senegal, Malawi or Mali. Laos appears to have comparable average figures, except for the mean number of destinations served by firms – although its figure is not far from that of Portugal, it is less than a third of that for Senegal. This seems to suggest there is no obvious linear evolution of these numbers with a country‟s GDP, and could instead depend on policy, historical ties, geography or other such factors.

**Table 1:** Descriptive statistics - Lao PDR yearly values 2006-2009 for number of firms, number of HS 6-digit products, number of destinations and averages; comparison with other countries

||**Nr. of**<br>**firms**|**Nr. of**<br>**products**|**Nr. of**<br>**dests.**|**Nr.**<br>**product**<br>**mean| m**|**of**<br>**s/firm**<br>**edian**|<br>**Nr. of**<br>**destinations/firm**<br>**mean| median**|**N**<br>**firms/**<br>**mean**|**r. of**<br>**product**<br>**| median**|**Nr. of**<br>**firms/desti**<br>**mean| me**|<br>**nation**<br>**dian**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Lao PDR: 2006**|<br>367|198|25|1.9|1|1.4<br>1|3.5|1|19.9|3|
|**2007**|<br>461|376|48|2.2|1|1.7 <br>1|2.6|1|15.9|4|
|**2008**|<br>565|576|70|2.9|1|1.8 <br>1|2.8|1|14.4|2|
|**2009**|<br>608|598|67|2.7|1|1.7 <br>1|2.8|1|15.4|2|
|**Mali -2006**|280|575|99|2.5|2|3.9 <br>2|1.9|1|7.2|2|
|**Malawi -2006**|856|932|102|1.6|1|4.1 <br>2|3.8|1|13.2|3|
|**Senegal -2006**|715|1,653|100|3.1|1|6.8 <br>2|2.9|2|22.2|5|
|**Tanzania -2006**|1,359|1,689|137|2.5|1|3.6 <br>1|2.9|1|24.7|7|
|**Dom. Rep. -2009**|3,031|2,812|147|6.2||2.2 <br>|||||
|**Portugal -2005**|21,127|1,143|202|4.6|2|2.8 <br>1|||||

_Source:_ Lao PDR - authors‟ calculation based on customs data; Mali, Malawi, Senegal and Tanzania – Cadot et al (2010); Dominican Republic – Molina, Bussolo and Iacovone (2010); Portugal – Amador and Opromolla (2010).

This first look at Lao exports‟ composition is complemented by a look at the top products (disaggregated at the HS 6-digit and 2-digit level). Table 2 shows a list of products ranked by their total dollar value in the period for which data is available. The domination of copper and related products is immediately apparent (also its steady rise if calculated by year), as well as the important presence of wood, agricultural products and garments. At the 2-digit level, one also _Exporting from a small landlocked economy_ _7_