metadata: authors: 0: author: Eichengreen, Barry
1: author: Gupta, Poonam;Gupta,Poonam
count: World
docna: 0: docna: The real exchange rate and export growth :
            are services different ?
docty: Policy Research Working Paper
subtopic: Economic Theory & Research,Industrial Economics,Export Competitiveness,Educational Sciences,International Trade and Trade Rules,Trade and Services,Economic Growth
teratopic: Macroeconomics and Economic Growth,Poverty Reduction,Private Sector Development
abstracts: cdata!: This paper considers the determinants of
            exports of modern services and traditional services. It
            considers the growth of export volumes as well as export
            surges, that is, the periods of rapid sustained export
            growth. It asks whether the determinants of export growth
            rates and export surges differ between merchandise,
            traditional services, and modern services and whether
            developing countries are different. It confirm the
            importance of the real exchange rate for export growth. The
            paper finds that the effect of the real exchange rate is
            even stronger for exports of services than for exports of
            goods and that it is especially strong for exports of modern
            services. The results suggest that in the course of their
            development, as developing countries shift from exporting
            commodities and merchandise to exporting traditional and
            modern services, appropriate policies toward the real
            exchange rate become even more important.
repnme: repnme: The real exchange rate and export growth :
            are services different ?
display_title: The real exchange rate and export
            growth : are services different
listing_relative_url: /research/2013/09/18325211/real-exchange-rate-export-growth-services-different
topicv3: Economic Growth m1326241 471,Trade m1326924 698,Trade in Services m1326928 780,Education m1327048 470,Services Exports m1504156 2612
publishtoextweb_dt: 2013-09-01T00:00:00Z
historic_topic: Macroeconomics and Economic Growth,Poverty Reduction,Private Sector Development
no_of_pages: 38
author_keys: 0: author_key: 1046760
model_extractions: WPS6629 Policy Research Working Paper 6629 The Real Exchange Rate and Export Growth Are Services Different?

_Barry Eichengreen Poonam Gupta_ The World Bank Development Economics Vice Presidency Operations and Strategy Unit September 2013
Policy Research Working Paper 6629

# **Abstract**

This paper considers the determinants of exports of modern services and traditional services. It considers the growth of export volumes as well as export surges, that is, the periods of rapid sustained export growth. It asks whether the determinants of export growth rates and export surges differ between merchandise, traditional services, and modern services and whether developing countries are different. It confirm the importance of the real exchange rate for export growth. The paper finds that the effect of the real exchange rate is even stronger for exports of services than for exports of goods and that it is especially strong for exports of modern services. The results suggest that in the course of their development, as developing countries shift from exporting commodities and merchandise to exporting traditional and modern services, appropriate policies toward the real exchange rate become even more important.

This paper is a product of the Operations and Strategy, Development Economics Vice Presidency. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://econ.worldbank.org. The authors may be contacted at pgupta5@worldbank.org.

_The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent._ Produced by the Research Support Team
# **The Real Exchange Rate and Export Growth: Are Services Different?**

# **Barry Eichengreen and Poonam Gupta**<sup>**1**</sup>

Keywords: Real Exchange Rate, Exports, Services, Traditional Services, Modern Services JEL Classification: F15; F43 1 University of California, Berkeley and the World Bank respectively. We thank seminar participants at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Delhi, National Council of Applied Economic Research, Delhi, Peterson Institute of International Economics, Washington DC, and the International Monetary Fund for many useful comments; and Honey Karun for excellent research assistance. Comments are welcome at <u>eichengr@econ.berkeley.edu and pgupta5@worldbank.org.</u>
# **1. Introduction**

There is now a broad consensus that policies encouraging exports can have a positive impact on economic growth.<sup>2</sup> The marginal product of labor tends to be higher in the production of exports than other activities. Reflecting this, export-oriented industries pay higher wages than other sectors. Exports tend to be labor intensive in developing countries, consistent with the comparative advantage implicit in factor endowments. Exports relax balance-of-payments constraints, facilitating imports of capital goods and technologies. Export industries are centers of learning by doing and sources of externalities that raise the productivity of other sectors.

These and related observations have spawned a large literature concerned with policies conducive to export growth. One strand has focused on the real exchange rate as a determinant or facilitator of export growth (Eichengreen (2008), Rodrik (2009), Haddad and Pancaro (2010), Fruend and Pierola (2012)). The real exchange rate is an important constituent of the relative price of exports, and relative prices matter for allocation, including the allocation of resources to the exportable sector. Real exchange rate volatility, on the other hand, can be an important complication for planning and serve as a disincentive for investment in general and for investment in capacity in the exportable sector in particular (Servén (2003)).

These literatures developed in an age when trade was predominantly trade in merchandise. The new frontier today is trade in services. Exports of services have grown by about 10 percent annually worldwide between 2001 and 2010. Since the mid-1990s, exports of services have grown by at least 15 percent annually in several developing countries. The share of developing countries in global trade in services rose from 14 to 21 percent between 1990 and 2008 (Goswami, Mattoo and Saez (2012)). Exports of engineering, health, legal, accounting and management services, constituents of the “modern” or “non-traditional” category, have been the fastest growing component of service exports in recent years. All this points to the question of whether the same policies and circumstances conducive to the growth of merchandise exports are conducive to the growth of exports of services.<sup>3</sup> In earlier papers, we considered the size of the service sector.<sup>4</sup> In this one we focus on service exports, distinguishing between modern and traditional services. Traditional services include trade and transport, tourism, financial services and insurance. Modern services include communications, computer, information and other related services.<sup>5</sup> We consider both the

> 2 See e.g. Rodrik (2009).

> 3 A related question, which we do not consider but could be a subject of future research, is whether exports of services have the same impact on economic growth and are associated with the same spillover effects and externalities as is traditionally evidently the case of exports of merchandise.

> 4 See Eichengreen (2008), Eichengreen and Gupta (2011), Eichengreen and Gupta (2012).

> 5 The distinction is not straightforward. One could imagine including insurance and finance in either category, for example, since exports of such services are of long standing, but their production and sale has been revolutionized by advances in information and communication technologies. In this case, we opt for categorizing them as traditional services, given their long history and because the export of insurance and finance is correlated strongly with merchandise exports. In any case, insurance and finance account for a small share of total services exports. Travel comprises about 35 per cent of service exports across countries, communication and computer-related services together account for another 35 per cent, transport services account for a further 20 per cent, and the remainder (about 4 per cent) consists of insurance and financing. Services constituting modern services here are broadly similar to those comprising business services in Jensen (2011).

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growth of export volumes and periods of unusually rapid sustained growth, which we call export surges.

The focus on export growth is straightforward, but why focus also on surges? Freund and Pierola (2012) have shown in their work on merchandise trade that surges provide additional identification. They are instances when export performance and their determinants change radically. They are when countries overcome obstacles that previously hindered export growth. Freund and Pierola find that large sustained depreciations of the real exchange rate typically precede surges of merchandise exports; and that low levels of exchange rate volatility and high levels of economic openness significantly predict export surges. They do not find other variables associated with the level of exports, such as inflation and financial crises, to be associated with surges of merchandise exports. We ask in this paper whether the results are similar for services.

The literature points to additional variables that could be important for exports of services. These include skills (human capital), English language proficiency, trade liberalization, foreign direct investment (FDI) and the existence of an overseas diaspora.<sup>6</sup> The role of human capital is self-evident, given the skilled-labor intensity of tradable services. Goswami, Mattoo and Saez (2012) observe that exports of services are more information intensive than exports of merchandise; it follows that interventions limiting information asymmetries, such as regulatory requirements and measures strengthening contract enforcement, may be especially important in this context. Other authors have pointed to the importance of a well-developed communications infrastructure: there is an obvious link between access to the internet and modern communications on the one hand and the provision of computer and back-office services on the other.<sup>7</sup> The presence of that infrastructure or significant investments in it may thus be important for the surges we consider in this paper.

The first question we ask in this paper is whether the determinants of export growth rates and surges differ between merchandise, traditional services and modern services. Building on the literature, we focus on the magnitude and significance of the response to the real exchange rate in particular.

Our second question is whether developing countries are different. Eilat and Einav (2004) argue that the exchange rate matters more for exports and growth in advanced economies. In the developing-country context, the real exchange rate is likely to matter less, while political risk is more important for competitiveness in key service sectors like tourism. In contrast, Rodrik (2009) and Fruend and Pierola (2012) find the effect of exchange rate on growth and exports to be stronger for developing countries. Goswami, Gupta, Mattoo and Saez (2012) find few differences in the determinants of service exports when they estimate these separately for advanced and developing economies.

> 6 See for example Tharakan et al (2005).

> 7 See Freund and Weinhold (2002) on the importance of internet for trade in services. Goswami, Mattoo and Saez (2012) express scepticism that internet penetration per se is important. As they note, Malaysia has high internet penetration but is a poor performer, while India, the exceptional performer, has low internet penetration. The same may be true of telecommunications: having adequate phone lines to a few critical call centres may be more important for the Philippines than high telephonic penetration. And to the extent that telecommunications infrastructure is characterized by natural monopoly or at least network increasing returns, there may be a role for regulation and competition policy.

3
Our results confirm the importance of the real exchange rate for export growth. We find that its effect is even stronger for exports of services than exports of merchandise; and that it is especially large for exports of modern services. While the evidence for differential effects between advanced and developing countries is weaker, this still suggests that as developing countries shift from exporting primarily commodities and merchandise to exporting traditional and modern services, appropriate policies toward the real exchange rate become even more important.

The rest of the paper is organised as follows. In Section 2 we describe our data and sample. In Section 3 we present the evidence from the levels of exports. In Sections 4 and 5 we define and characterize export surges in merchandise, traditional services and modern services. Section 6 presents evidence on the determinants of those surges, including the real exchange rate. The final section concludes.

# 2. **Data and Sample**

We use annual data for 1980-2009.<sup>8</sup> We include all countries for which significant runs of data on exports of services are available: 66 in all, of which 9 are low income, 15 are low middle income, 20 are high-middle income and 22 are high income.<sup>9</sup> We organize these data into country-year observations of the growth of exports of services in constant U.S. dollars.

Table 1 shows the bivariate correlation between exports of merchandise and exports of different categories of services. The correlation of traditional service exports and merchandise exports is higher than that between exports of merchandise and exports of modern services. This is a first indication that the determinants of exports of modern services may be different from the determinants of merchandise exports.

**Table 1: Correlation between Growth of Exports of Merchandise and Different Components of Services**

||Merchandise|All Services|Traditional<br>Services|Modern<br>Services|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Merchandise|1||||
|All Services|0.39***|1|||
|Traditional Services|0.42***|0.77***|1||
|Modern Services|0.16***|0.69***|0.18***|1|

> 8 Exports of services being unexceptional prior to the 1980s.

> 9 We use the World Bank definition to classify countries into various income groups, based on the data sheet given by World Bank last updated in April 2012, whereby all economies with populations of more than 30,000 have been classified into various income groups according to their 2010 gross national income (GNI) per capita. The groups are: low income, $1,005 or less; lower middle income, $1,006-3,975; upper middle income, $3,976-12,275; and high income, $12,276 or more. For a few of our countries – Burkina Faso, Brazil, Comoros, Denmark, Hungary, Indonesia, Mozambique and Swaziland –we have data for only a portion of the period.

4
Note: Entry in each case is the correlation coefficient. *, **, *** indicate that the coefficient is significantly different from zero at 10, 5 and 1 percent level of significance, respectively. The correlations have been calculated using the data averaged over five-year periods.

We consider four real-exchange-rate measures. The first is the bilateral real exchange rate in purchasing-power-parity (PPP) terms, from Penn World Tables, vis-a-vis the United States (denoted “RER”). The second is based on the exchange rate misalignment adjusted for the Balasa-Samuelson effect. For this we regress the real exchange rate in PPP on real per-capita GDP and calendar-year fixed effects. The extent of misalignment is then calculated as the difference between the log real exchange rate and the log fitted value from the regression (as in Cheung, Chinn and Fujii (2009) and Rodrik (2009)). Third, we construct the bilateral real exchange rate with data from the International Monetary Fund’s _International Financial Statistics_ (IFS) on nominal exchange rates vis-a-vis the U.S. dollar and the consumer price index for the United States and other countries. Fourth and finally, we obtain an estimate of the real effective exchange rate from IFS and the _World Development Indicators_ of the World Bank. While this measure has the advantage of being multilateral rather than bilateral, country coverage is more limited.<sup>10</sup> Tables A1 and A2 in Appendix A show correlations between different exchange rate series. The correlation coefficients between different exchange rate series in levels (Table A1) are not very large, and only some of them are statistically significant. The correlations between percentage changes in different real exchange rate measures (Table A2), by comparison, are large and also statistically significant at the 1 percent level. In particular, the correlation between the two Penn World Table-based measures is quite high (0.99). More information on the sources of the data and construction of variables is in Appendix A.

# 3. **The Real Exchange Rate and Export Growth**

We now analyze the determinants of the growth of exports of merchandise and services. We contrast traditional and modern services. We consider different measures of the real exchange rate. We compare advanced and developing countries. And we allow the effect of RER changes to differ for depreciations and appreciations.

Our basic specification is in equation 1, where the dependent variable Xit is growth rate of exports of merchandise or services for country i in five-year period t.<sup>11</sup> The independent variables include log per capita income (averaged over the previous five-year period), and the percentage change in the real exchange rate. We estimate these regressions for a panel of

> 10 Rodrik (2009) tests the robustness of his results to using a bilateral Real Exchange Rate (RER) based on relative wholesale price indices, which we have not included for brevity. Yet another possibility would be to use the data on bilateral exports and bilateral exchange rate to estimate the effect of real exchange rate on exports growth. Such an exercise would have two benefits: endogeneity would be less of a concern, and measurement of bilateral exchange rate would be more precise.

> 11 We dropped outliers where export growth of merchandise, traditional or modern services exceeded 100 per cent. Some 20 observations were thus dropped.

5
countries and five-year averages of the data and with country and time fixed effects.<sup>12</sup> We estimate the regressions with standard errors that are robust and clustered at country level to correct for heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation.

X it = α Log Per Capita Incomeit-1 + β d log RER it + ∑γi i country fixed effects i + ∑λt t period fixed effects t + εit<sup>(1)</sup> We include the level of RER in some of the basic specifications. We extend this model by including other controls, and the interaction of these other controls with change in RER.

X it = α Log Per Capita Incomeit-1 + β d log RER it + ∑γi icountry fixed effects i + ∑λt t period fixed effects t + δ other controls it + θ Other controls* d log RERit + εit (2) In Table 2 the coefficient of the percentage change in the real exchange rate is positive and significant for merchandise exports, modern services, and traditional services alike. The coefficient for modern services is larger than that for merchandise or traditional services. The coefficient of log RER, in contrast, is insignificant. The coefficients on the RER imply that a ten percent faster depreciation accelerates the growth of exports of merchandise and traditional services by about 1.5 percentage points and that of modern services exports by about 2.3 percentage points. Given an average growth rate of exports of 6 percent for merchandise and traditional services and 8 percent for modern services, it implies a 25 percent acceleration in exports growth. Put differently, a one standard deviation increase in the rate of depreciation of RER accelerates exports growth of merchandise and traditional and modern by about 50 percent.

In order to compare the coefficients across equations, we estimate the regression equation simultaneously for exports growth of merchandise, traditional services and modern services using seemingly unrelated regressions and ask whether the coefficient of RER differs across various exports series. We find that the coefficient of RER is not different statistically for merchandise and traditional services, but it is different for modern services. This larger real exchange rate effect for modern services is one of our key findings.

Just why the real exchange rate impacts exports of services so powerfully is, at this point, a matter of conjecture. It could be that services, and especially modern services, use fewer imported imports. It could be that these sectors have lower fixed costs of entry, making for a more elastic supply response. It could be that demand for these exports is more price elastic. Or it could be a combination of the above.<sup>13</sup>

> 12 There are several benefits of estimating regressions with data averaged for five-year periods. Missing observations are less of a concern. Lag structure becomes less important. Outliers are less of a concern, since we are averaging out extreme values. Finally, unit roots in real exchange rate or per capita income or in other variables are less of an issue.

> 13 Smith (2004) previously found that exports from different sectors respond differently to the exchange rate movement, in particular that exports of services are more exchange rate sensitive than the exports of agricultural goods. He finds that exports respond to exchange rate movement with a lag of 12-18 months but that the lags with which the real exchange rate affects export volumes differs by sector: exports of services volumes respond to the real exchange rate with a lag of 18 months; manufacturing exports with a lag of 12-15 months, and food exports with about a year’s lag.

6
# **Table 2: The Real Exchange Rate and Export Growth**

||**I**|**II**|**III**|**IV**|**V**|**VI**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Mercha**|**ndise**|**Traditiona**|**l Services**|**Modern S**|**ervices**|
|Log Per Capita Income, Lag|-0.03|-0.03|-0.03|-0.03|0.02|0.01|
||[1.08]|[1.02]|[1.33]|[1.43]|[0.41]|[0.28]|
|RER, Percent Change|0.15***|0.14***|0.14***|0.16***|0.23***|0.26***|
||[4.27]|[3.18]|[4.95]|[4.75]|[3.99]|[3.87]|
|RER, Log||0.01||-0.03||-0.06|
|||[0.23]||[1.14]||[1.04]|
|Country Fixed Effects|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|
|Time Fixed Effects|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|
|Observations|380|380|380|380|380|380|
|Number of Countries|66|66|66|66|66|66|
|R-square|0.30|0.31|0.35|0.35|0.26|0.26|

Note: *, **, *** indicate that coefficients are significant at 10, 5, and 1 per cent levels respectively. The dependent variable is growth in exports of merchandise, traditional or modern services, (in constant USD). Observations are averages over five-year periods. Data are from 1980-2009. Regressions include country fixed effects and time fixed effects, as indicated. Standard errors are robust and clustered at countries. Log per capita income is lagged by one five year period, per cent change in real exchange rate and log real exchange rate are the average values over the contemporaneous five year period.

In Appendix Table A3 we obtain similar results with alternative measures of the real exchange rate. The coefficient on the real exchange rate is positive and significant for all different exchange rate measures, for the exports of merchandise and different services alike. As before, it is larger for modern services.

Next we include lagged changes in RER in regressions similar to those reported in table 2. We find that the coefficient on the contemporaneous value is positive and significant while the coefficient on the lag is insignificant. Again, the coefficient on the contemporaneous value of the RER is twice as large for modern services as for merchandise and traditional services.

In Table 3 we probe for a differential effect of the RER in developing (low and middle income) and developed (high income) countries, by including the interaction of RER with a dummy for developing countries. There is little evidence to this effect. Interestingly, though the coefficient of the interaction between RER and the dummy for developing countries is largest for modern services.<sup>**14**</sup> 14 The results do not change when we define developing countries as low and low middle income countries; and define developed countries as high middle income and high income countries. We also interact the real exchange rate with lag per capita income rather than with a simple dummy for developing countries in order to see if the effect of the RER on growth differs incrementally with per capita income of the countries. When we include the interaction of the RER and per capita income, the coefficient on the interaction term is not significant, and it also takes away the significance of lag per capita income and RER, perhaps due to multicollinearity.

7
# **Table 3: The Real Exchange Rate and Growth of Exports across Countries (Different Income Groups)**

||**I**|**II**|**III**|
|---|---|---|---|
||**Merchandise**|**Traditional Services**|**Modern Services**|
|Log Per Capita Income, Lag|-0.03|-0.03|0.02|
||[1.14]|[1.41]|[0.34]|
|RER, percent change|0.11***|0.09**|0.17***|
||[2.80]|[2.48]|[2.90]|
|RER* developing country dummy|0.04|0.06|0.07|
||[0.73]|[1.54]|[0.97]|
|Country Fixed Effects|Yes|Yes|Yes|
|Time Fixed Effects|Yes|Yes|Yes|
|Observations|380|380|380|
|Number of Countries|66|66|66|
|R-square|0.31|0.35|0.26|

Note: *, **, *** indicate that coefficients are significant at 10, 5, and 1 per cent levels respectively. The dependent variables are growth in exports of merchandise (Column I), exports of traditional services (Column II) and exports of modern services (Column III), all in constant USD. Observations are averages over five-year periods. Data are from 1980-2009. Regressions include country fixed effects, and time fixed effect, as indicated. Standard errors are robust and clustered at countries. Log per capita income is lagged by one five year period, per cent change in real exchange rate is average of annual values over contemporaneous five years.

.

Next we allow for the effect to differ for depreciation and appreciation of the RER. In Table 4 we add a dummy variable that equals 1 when the percentage change in the real exchange rate is positive, i.e. when there is depreciation, by interacting it with the real exchange rate. In the case of merchandise exports, the effect of exchange rate depreciation is somewhat larger but does not differ significantly from the effect of appreciation. Nevertheless, the coefficient on the RER for depreciation (0.07+0.12) is significantly different from 0 at the 1 percent level of significance. In the case of traditional and modern services, appreciation does not seem to affect export growth, but the effect of depreciation is positive, large and significant. As before, the effect is larger for export of modern services than for traditional services.

In sum, while real exchange rate changes affect exports of merchandise and traditional services in broadly similar ways, the effect on modern services is larger.

**Table 4: Depreciation vs. Appreciation and Export Growth**

8
||**I**|**III**|**V**|
|---|---|---|---|
||**Merchandise**|**Traditional**<br>**Services**|**Modern**<br>**Services**|
|Log Per Capita Income, Lag|-0.03|-0.03|0.02|
||[1.09]|[1.38]|[0.35]|
|RER, percent change|0.07|0.05|0.05|
||[0.94]|[0.95]|[0.75]|
|RER* depreciation dummy|0.12|0.15**|0.28**|
||[1.19]|[2.02]|[2.28]|
|Country Fixed Effects|Yes|Yes|Yes|
|Time Fixed Effects|Yes|Yes|Yes|
|Observations|380|380|380|
|Number of Countries|66|66|66|
|R-square|0.31|0.35|0.27|

Note: *, **, *** indicate that coefficients are significant at 10, 5, and 1 per cent levels respectively. The dependent variables are growth in exports of merchandise (Column I), exports of traditional services (Column II) and exports of modern services (Column III), all in constant USD. Observations are averages over five-year periods. Data are from 1980-2009. Regressions include country fixed effects, and time fixed effect, as indicated. Standard errors are robust and clustered at countries. Log per capita income is lagged by one five year period; per cent change in real exchange rate is average of annual values over contemporaneous five years.

As in other analyses of this nature, endogeneity bias cannot be entirely ruled out. Here, however, the fact that in each regression we are working with a relatively small subcomponent of the export basket attenuates the problem.<sup>15</sup> To address the issue of omitted variables, we add a vector of controls, including savings rates, net FDI as a share of GDP, an indicator for Englishspeaking population, a dummy for currency crises, and the years since a country joined the World Trade Organization.<sup>16</sup> We include them by themselves and, in addition, interact them with the real exchange rate. Because some of these variables are time invariant or move slowly, we estimate the specifications with random effects.

When these additional variables are included in the regressions one at a time, only some of them enter significantly. When we include interaction of these other controls with RER, the coefficients of the interaction terms are insignificant; indicating that the effect of RER on exports growth is not conditional on these factors. Details can be found in Appendix B. The important point is that the coefficient on the real exchange rate remains large and significant, as before. Again, as before, the effect of the real exchange rate is larger for modern services (Tables B1B3).<sup>17</sup> A summary of regression results with the inclusion of other controls is in Table 5.

15 To the extent that the bias may still exist, it is likely to be downward, and the coefficient of RER is likely to be underestimated.

16 The explanatory variables, their sources, and summary statistics are enumerated in Appendix A4 and A5. 17 In addition to the results in the Appendix, we included a financial reform index and domestic credit/GDP (as measures of financial sector development); distance from major financial centres; internet penetration; and education in the regressions. The coefficients of these variables are insignificant in all cases. The insignificant coefficient of education for modern services is surprising. We looked for outliers: India seemed to be an outlier with a low average schooling and a high growth of export of modern services. However dropping India does not make much difference.

9
**Table 5: Summary of Regression Results with Other Controls**<sup>18</sup>

||**Merchandise**|**Traditional Services**|**Modern Services**|
|---|---|---|---|
|One variable<br>at a time|RER, Currency<br>crashes: have positive<br>and significant<br>coefficients|RER, FDI, Currency<br>crashes: have positive and<br>significant coefficients|RER, English, crises, FDI:<br>all have positive and<br>significant coefficients|
|Including<br>several<br>variables<br>together|RER has a positive<br>and significant<br>coefficient|RER, FDI, Currency<br>crashes: have positive and<br>significant coefficients|RER has a positive and<br>significant coefficient|

# **4.  Surges**

We now use the Bai-Perron structural break technique to identify export surges.<sup>19</sup> We define a surge when a pair of breaks points to first a significant acceleration and then a significant deceleration of exports. We require the export growth rate to be at least 2 percent for three consecutive years. So defined, the surge lasts until the growth rate falls below this 2 percentage point threshold or until another structural break is identified.<sup>20</sup> To illustrate, in Appendix C, Figure C2-C4, we show the surges identified for India.

We identified 81 surges in exports of merchandise, 100 surges in traditional services, and 80 surges in exports of modern services. Table 6 shows that surges typically last four to five years, although a number of surges of traditional services last only three years.

# **Table 6: Duration of Surges in Exports of Merchandise**

We tried three different education attainment variables available from the Barro and Lee data set: average years of schooling in population more than 15 years of age; percent of population with completed tertiary educations in 25plus age group; percent of population with secondary education completed in 25-plus age group. Recognizing that education is a slow-moving variable even in five-year averages, we estimate regressions with random effects, or just Ordinary Least Squares. Again the results do not change much. We also included tariff on merchandise imports as a measure of trade restrictiveness of merchandise exports; but its coefficient was insignificant. It would have been useful to include an appropriate variable to measure the impact of trade restrictiveness or trade liberalization of services in the regression for exports of services, but the data are not available.

18 Nominal exchange rate volatility has a positive and significant coefficient for traditional services; savings and tariffs are not significant in any of the regressions; the WTO dummy is positive and significant for traditional and modern services. The coefficient on currency crashes is positive and significant, consistent with Gupta, Mishra and Sahay (2007) who show that currency crises may not be detrimental to export growth in developing countries and, that if the countries in question have low external debt, they may indeed be associated with faster export growth. 19 Bai and Perron (2003) derive the rate of convergence and the limiting distributions of the estimated break points. Their approach allows a subset of the parameters to not change (and includes a pure structural change model as a special case). They also address the problem of testing for multiple structural changes: a sup Wald type test for the null hypothesis of no change versus an alternative containing an arbitrary number of changes and a procedure that allows one to test the null hypothesis of, say, l change, versus the alternative hypothesis of l+1 changes. 20 We do consider whether the second point can be considered as a continuation of the same export surge by meeting the same criteria.

10
**and Traditional and Modern Services**

|Duration of<br>Surge(Years)|Number of Surges:<br>Merchandise|Number of Surges:<br>Traditional Services|Number of Surges:<br>Modern Services|
|---|---|---|---|
|3|3|33|0|
|4|34|32|38|
|5|19|19|17|
|6|9|4|6|
|7|8|7|11|
|8|6|3|5|
|9 or more|2|2|3|
|Average|5.1|4.4|5.2|
|Duration||||
|(years)||||

In Table 7 we consider the growth rate of exports before, during and after the surge episodes. The growth of merchandise exports in the year the surge starts is about 15 percent per annum. In the year before the surge, in contrast, it is 0.07 percent, and it turns negative after the surge. The pattern for traditional services is similar to that of merchandise exports. Surges in exports of modern services are most pronounced, exports grow by almost 20 percent a year during the surge. Exports of modern services do not grow substantially faster in the three years following the surge than in the three years before it. Evidently, surges in exports of modern services begin suddenly, last about 5 years, and not infrequently peter out.

**Table 7: Export Growth during Surges**

||During<br>the year<br>export<br>surge<br>starts|During the<br>entire<br>duration of<br>the surge|One<br>year<br>prior<br>to<br>surge|Three<br>years<br>prior to<br>surge|One<br>year<br>after<br>the<br>surge|Three<br>years<br>after<br>the<br>surge|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||Surges in|Exports|of Merchan|dise||
|Export Growth of Merchandise|15.0|13.4|0.07|-1.1|-4.8|3.7|
|||Surges in Ex|ports of T|raditional S|ervices||
|Export Growth of Traditional Services|15.2|14.6|3.9|1.7|-6.5|3.3|
|||Surges in E|xports of|Modern Se|rvices||
|Export Growth of Modern Services|23.0|19.9|-2.1|-5.0|-9.9|2.8|

Figure 1 displays growth rates around the surge periods, where time 0 is the years of the surge, while the negative values refer to the years immediately before it and positive values to the years immediately after. The visual depiction reinforces the picture painted by Table 7.

# **Figure 1a: Average Growth Rate of Exports of Merchandise Exports**

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# **Before, During and After the Surge**

<!-- Start of picture text --> 20<br>15<br>10<br>5<br>0<br>-7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6<br>-5<br>-10<br>Mean Median<br><!-- End of picture text -->

**Figure 1b: Average Growth Rate of Exports of Traditional Services Before, During and After the Export Surge**

<!-- Start of picture text --> 20<br>15<br>10<br>5<br>0<br>-7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6<br>-5<br>-10<br>Mean Median<br><!-- End of picture text --> 12
# **Figure 1c: Average Growth Rate of Exports of Modern Services Before, During and After the Export Surges**

<!-- Start of picture text --> 20<br>15<br>10<br>5<br>0<br>-7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6<br>-5<br>-10<br>-15<br>Mean Median<br><!-- End of picture text --> Note: In Figures 2a-2c, 0 refers to the years of the surge, the negative values refer to the years immediately before it and positive values to the years immediately after.

The time distribution of export surges is shown in Appendix D, Figures D1-D3. Compared to surges in exports of merchandise, surges of exports of modern services appear to be somewhat more evenly distributed. For merchandise there is a concentration of episodes in early 1990s as well as in the early 2000s, reflecting the widespread adoption of outward-oriented reforms and increases in production fragmentation and global supply chains. It might be thought that surges in exports of services reflect the diffusion of modern information and communications technology and similarly would be concentrated in this recent period. Interestingly, we do not find this to be the case. For traditional services, the clusters of surges are in 1985, 1986, 1994 and 2004. For modern services, there are clusters of surges in 1996, 1998 and 2004-2005.

# 5. **Characterizing Export Surges**

Following Fruend and Pierola, we examine the behavior of the RER, volatility of the RER, FDI, saving rate, financial reforms and internet penetration during surge episodes. We examine them separately for traditional and modern services and for developing and developed countries. Figure 2 shows that surges in exports of services, both modern and traditional, tend to be preceded by real exchange rate depreciations, especially in developing countries. On the other hand, export surges do not seem to be preceded by declining RER volatility (see Figure 3).

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Surges in service exports also seem to be preceded by increases in FDI inflows, especially in developing countries (Figure 4).<sup>21</sup>

**Figure 2: RER and Export Surges in Traditional and Modern Services**

<!-- Start of picture text --> RER Index RER Index<br>Modern Services, Developed Countries Modern Services, Developing Countries<br>RER Index RER Index<br>Traditional Services, Developed Countries Traditional Services, Developing Countries<br>-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5<br>surge<br>Median Mean<br>160<br>140<br>120<br>100<br>160<br>140<br>120<br>100<br><!-- End of picture text --> Note: 0 refers to the first three years of the surge, negative values refer to the years immediately before the surge, and positive values to the years immediately after the surge.

> 21 We show the behavior of additional variables in Appendix E, Figures E1-E3. The financial reform index in Figure E1 shows a trend toward liberalization of the financial sector prior to the surges of exports of services, and especially fast liberalization prior to the surge in the exports of modern services by developing countries. Export surges also seem to be preceded by an increase in the saving rate, especially in developing countries (Figure E2). Surges in exports of modern services, especially in developed countries, are accompanied by and preceded by a sharp increase in the internet penetration (Figure E3).

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**Figure 3: RER Volatility and Surges in Exports of Traditional and Modern Services**

<!-- Start of picture text --> RER Volatility RER Volatility<br>Modern Services, Developed Countries Modern Services, Developing Countries<br>RER Volatility RER Volatility<br>Traditional Services, Developed Countries Traditional Services, Developing Countries<br>-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5<br>surge<br>Median Mean<br>1<br>.8<br>.6<br>.4<br>.2<br>1<br>.8<br>.6<br>.4<br>.2<br><!-- End of picture text --> Note: 0 refers to the first three years of the surge, negative values refer to the years immediately before the surge, and positive values to the years immediately after the surge.

**Figure 4: FDI and Surges in Exports of Traditional and Modern Services**

<!-- Start of picture text --> Net FDI as % of GDP Net FDI as % of GDP<br>Modern Services, Developed Countries Modern Services, Developing Countries<br>Net FDI as % of GDP Net FDI as % of GDP<br>Traditional Services, Developed Countries Traditional Services, Developing Countries<br>-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5<br>surge<br>Median Mean<br>6<br>4<br>2<br>0<br>6<br>4<br>2<br>0<br><!-- End of picture text --> Note: 0 refers to the first three years of the surge; negative values refer to the years immediately before the surge, and positive values to the years immediately after the surge.

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# 6. **The Real Exchange Rate and Export Surges**

We estimate the determinants of the timing of a surge in the exports of merchandise, traditional and modern services, focusing again on the real exchange rate. For the dependent variable, we create a dummy which takes a value 1 for all the years of that export surge, regressing it on log per capita income and the RER (the average of previous three years to smooth out noise in the annual data).<sup>22</sup> As controls we include volatility of the real exchange rate, the savings rate, FDI, an indicator of an English-speaking population, a dummy for currency crises and the tariff rate, all again averages of three previous years.<sup>23</sup> We include year fixed effects to account for global events affecting the exports.

**Table 8: The Real Exchange Rate and Export Surges (Probit Regressions)**

||**I**|**II**|**III**|**IV**|**V**|**VI**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Merch**|**andise**|**Traditi**<br>**Servi**|**onal**<br>**ces**|**Modern**|**Services**|
|RER, percent change|0.77***|1.12***|1.05***|1.12***|0.68***|0.68***|
||[5.02]|[3.91]|[6.82]|[3.86]|[4.73]|[2.59]|
|RER percent change *Developing|||||||
|Countries||-0.44||-0.09||0|
|||[1.41]||[0.29]||[0.01]|
|Log Per Capita Income, Lag|0.02**|0.02***|0.01|0.01|0.03***|0.03***|
||[2.57]|[2.61]|[1.64]|[1.63]|[3.82]|[3.82]|
|Year Fixed Effects|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|
|Observations|1847|1847|1867|1867|1955|1955|
|Pseudo R-squared|0.11|0.11|0.09|0.09|0.07|0.07|

Note: *, **, *** indicate that coefficients are significant at 10, 5, 1 per cent levels respectively. Standard errors are robust and clustered at countries. All regressions are estimated by Probit and marginal effects are reported. Per cent change in real exchange rate is the average of the three previous years.

Consistent with our earlier analysis, RER depreciation has a positive and significant effect on the probability of surges of merchandise and services. As shown in Table 8, the effect is slightly larger for goods and traditional services. We interact the RER with the dummy for 22 The approach is similar to that of Hausmann, Pritchett, and Rodrik (2005) who seek to identify turning points in growth performance. They analyze 80 growth accelerations, estimating a probit model on the dummy for accelerations. They find that while the predictive power of the model is low, growth accelerations are correlated with RER depreciation, investment, and trade and economic reforms.

23 The results on trade reforms are consistent with Freund and Pierola. The authors provide rationale for this result, namely that trade reforms are often sector specific and hence may not influence the overall exports growth. We also included years since a country joined the World Trade Organization, a financial reform index and internet penetration, but their coefficients are uniformly insignificant. There seems to be a general trend toward financial sector liberalisation in all countries, which is not noticeably stronger before the surges. The insignificant coefficients are perhaps reflecting these general trends.

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developing countries to see if the RER has a different effect on the probability of an export surge. The coefficient on this interaction variable is not significantly different from zero.<sup>24</sup> When we include other controls in the regressions, the RER continues to have a positive and significant coefficient, while RER volatility has a negative effect on the probability of an export surge (results not shown). This last result is consistent with Freund and Pierola (2012). A currency crash in the recent past does not affect the probability of an export surge in general but its effect is positive and marginally significant for surges in traditional services. This is consistent with the pattern observed by Borchert and Mattoo (2009). An English-speaking population increases the probability of a surge of modern service exports, which is intuitive. Higher FDI inflows and a higher savings rate are associated with a greater likelihood of surges of exports of traditional services and merchandise.<sup>25</sup> To explore the robustness of these results, we estimate Tobit regressions in which the dependent variable is the growth of the exports of the corresponding series if there is a surge and zero if there is no surge. These results make fuller use of the data and as such should be more informative than those in Table 8. We estimate these regressions including the RER and per capita income, with the interaction of the RER with the dummy for developing countries, and with and without additional controls (latter not shown). Again, we include year fixed effects and cluster the standard errors by countries. As above, the impact of the real exchange rate on exports of modern services is found to be larger than that on traditional services, while the impact on exports of traditional services is larger than that on merchandise exports. As before, the coefficient on the RER is about 50 percent larger than for modern services. Among other variables with significant coefficients, RER volatility has negative coefficient while Englishspeaking population, FDI etc. all have coefficients similar to the ones obtained in Probit regressions. Again, there is no indication of difference between advanced and industrial countries. We also estimate these regressions only for the period since 1990, and find the coefficient of RER to be larger for all three series, but the relative values of the coefficients, across different exports series, remains similar.

> 24 To establish robustness we estimate a random effects Probit model, a linear probability model with country fixed effects and year fixed effects, and a random effects logit model. We calculate robust standard errors and, alternatively, cluster standard errors by country. The results do not change much Since traditional services have many surge episodes which last only three years, we also test the robustness of the results to dropping the episodes lasting only three years.

> 25 We estimate several other specifications, especially by including these “other controls” one at a time. The results are not shown, but are available on request. In all these specifications the RER continues to have a large positive effect on the probability of an export surge.

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**Table 9: The Real Exchange Rate and Export Surges (Tobit Regressions)**

||**I**|**II**|**III**|**IV**|**V**|**VI**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Merch**|**andise**|**Tradit**<br>**Servi**|**ional**<br>**ces**|**Modern**|**Services**|
|RER, percent change|0.63***|0.77***|0.83***|0.81**|1.24***|1.42*|
||[3.68]|[2.97]|[4.59]|[1.97]|[2.95]|[1.76]|
|RER*Dummy for Developing Countries||-0.18||0.03||-0.24|
|||[0.54]||[0.07]||[0.23]|
|Log Per Capita Income, Lag|0|0|0|0|0.04|0.04|
||[0.20]|[0.21]|[0.14]|[0.14]|[1.13]|[1.13]|
|Year Fixed Effects|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|Yes|
|Observations|1964|1964|1925|1925|1955|1955|
|Pseudo R-squared|0.19|0.19|0.14|0.14|0.057|0.057|

Note: *, **, *** indicate that coefficients are significant at 10, 5, 1 percent levels respectively. Standard errors are robust and clustered at countries. Regressions are estimated using the Tobit model and marginal effects are reported. Regressions include data up to the first year of the surge episodes. Percent change in real exchange rate is the average of the three previous years. Per capita income is lagged by one year.

# 7. **Conclusion**

The role of exports in economic growth and, in turn, of the real exchange rate in export promotion is prominent in the literature on openness and development. But much of this literature dates from the era when exports were exports of merchandise, whereas today exports increasingly mean exports of services. This raises the question of whether the emphasis in the earlier literature on the importance of a competitively valued exchange rate for promoting exports carries over to this environment.

We have studied the response of exports of merchandise and both traditional and modern services to changes in the real exchange rate in this paper. We analyze both changes in average rates of export growth and sharp surges in exports. We find that the exports of services, and especially modern services, respond even more than the exports of merchandise to changes in the real exchange rate. This may reflect the fact that services, especially modern services, use fewer imported inputs, that these sectors have lower fixed costs of entry, making for a more elastic supply response, or that the demand for these exports is more price elastic. In contrast, we do not find differential effects across advanced and developing countries. Nonetheless, as less-advanced countries shift in the course of development from exporting primarily commodities and merchandise to exporting traditional and modern services, these findings suggest that appropriate policies toward the real exchange rate become, if anything, even more important.

This said, relying on an undervalued exchange rate to encourage the growth of exports of services, as of merchandise, has its limitations. Limiting the natural tendency for the real exchange rate to appreciate as an economy develops can have costs as well as benefits. Eichengreen (2008) and Haddad and Pancaro (2010) caution that depreciation and undervaluation can be used to spur growth only in the short term, because a country cannot maintain a depreciated real exchange rate indefinitely. Potential problems include tensions with 18
other countries, the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves on which capital losses may occur, and the fact that adjustment when it occurs may come in the form of inflation. For a competitive real exchange rate to succeed in boosting exports it will have to be accompanied by strong institutions, sound macroeconomic policies, a disciplined labor force, and high savings rates. Finally, for the benefits of the policy to exceed the costs, countries using real exchange rate depreciation to jumpstart exports and growth should have an exit strategy in mind and, ideally, in place.

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