The type of imported goods and economic growth: Panel evidence

Abstract

The kind of goods that a country imports may play important role in the explanation of economic growth besides the other factors. By using unbalanced panel data of 132 developing countries for the period of 1998-2010, this study examines the impact of the type of imported goods (i.e., imports of capital, consumption and intermediate goods) on economic growth of the importer country. The results indicate that imports of capital and intermediate goods significantly and positively affect economic growth of importer country while imports of consumption goods has negative significant impact on economic growth. These results mostly remained valid for two different measures of economic growth and sub-samples