Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
Does export instability interfere with economic development? Work by McBean answers in the negative. He finds no systematic relationship between instability and economic growth. This paper asks three questions about McBean's work: (1) Has he measured the relevant variables appropriately? (2) Were special factors at work in the period he studied (1950‐58) ? (3) Was his sample of countries representative? It presents a broader statistical analysis, using a different index of instability, two decades of data, and more countries. In general, the findings do not contradict McBean. But calculations using different time periods (1950‐66 and 1956‐67) do produce some evidence of interference. Furthermore, the paper finds one new relationship—a strong inverse connection between instability and the level of investment in developing countries.