Agricultural exports and economic development in Spain during the first wave of globalisation

Abstract

The objective of this article is to study the evolution of Spanish agricultural exports, their share of agricultural production as a whole, the determinants of their expansion and, finally, the contribution that they have made to economic development. Our results show considerable dynamism in agricultural exports, which however faced certain obstacles that limited any further expansion. Their share on production varied greatly, but for some relevant products it was fundamental, substantially contributing to its growth. The increase in external demand but also the comparatively high profitability of export products and a high level of competitiveness in the international market generated highly dynamic behaviour in supply. The contribution of the export sector to Spanish economic growth was positive although moderate. It contributed to financing necessary imports during the industrialisation process, favoured a more efficient allocation of resources and produced intersectoral linkages. However, the geographical concentration of production for export limited its spatial impact on the Spanish economy.

When Britain Turned Inward: The Impact of Interwar British Protection

“…Both the original dataset involving the 847 product categories, and the 258-good dataset, are freely available online for other researchers to use. 3 We find that the conventional wisdom is correct when it comes to the impact of protection on overall trade flows: it only accounted for around one-quarter of the 1929-33 UK import collapse. However, we also find that tariffs and quotas were the major reason why the share of UK imports coming from the British Empire increased during the 1930s.…”

“…Madsen (2001) is an exception; see footnote 5 3. They can be accessed at https://cepr.org/content/trade-depression/uk-interwar-trade-data.…”