Economic development and agricultural export pattern: an empirical cross-country analysis
研究发现，随着经济发展，未加工农产品的比较优势下降，而加工农产品的比较优势上升；资本匮乏和国内需求不足是欠发达国家加工农产品出口的主要障碍。
Factor requirements of agricultural products differ distinctively according to their degree of processing. Whereas the production of agricultural raw materials is natural resource intensive, the production of processed agricultural products is capital intensive. "Revealed" comparative advantage of unprocessed agricultural raw material decreases significantly during the process of economic development. The opposite development path, however, has been observed for processed agricultural products. It is concluded that low capital endowment, as well as the lack of representative domestic demand, are the main obstacles less developed countries are confronted with to improve their export performance in trade with processed agricultural products. Copyright 1989 by Oxford University Press.