Revision of a paper presented at the IATRC/IAAE Pre-Congress Symposium on Globalization, Macroeconomic Imbalances, and South America as the World’s Food Basket, Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, 18 August 2012.

A number of studies have tried to establish a causal link between export expansion and economic growth. Empirical studies of the relationship have pursued two different approaches-one set has used inter-country statistical comparisons and the second set has focused on the economic performance of...