State-Society Synergy and Export Sophistication

Student thesis: Master's ThesisMaster of Social Science

Abstract

This thesis contributes to the recent work on “export sophistication” in international political economy and economic growth. The central question that I address is what determines a country’s level of export sophistication. To answer this question, I explore the role of state-society relations and political institutions – in addition to economic fundamentals – in influencing the level of sophistication. I argue that a synergetic relationship between state and society positively contributes to the level of export sophistication. However, this relationship holds only after the level of state-society synergy reaches some threshold. This threshold effect of synergy is formally derived from a simultaneous game with incomplete information.
The central hypothesis is tested using time series cross sectional data. The key novelty in the empirical part of my research is the construction of a “synergy index” that allows for cross-country comparison and is based on Peter Evans’ conceptualization of the term. Overall, the data suggests that state-society synergy favors export sophistication in countries with above-threshold levels of synergy. This relationship is particularly robust in the subsample of (upper) middle income countries. Furthermore, there is evidence that state-society synergy has a stronger effect on export sophistication in countries with a higher human capital stock and higher net inflows of foreign capital.
Date of Award31 Jan 2013
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • National University of Singapore
SupervisorSooyeon Kim (Supervisor) & Tobias Hofmann (Supervisor)

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