Export diversification and financial openness

This paper investigates empirically the effect of export diversification (i.e. both export product diversification and services export diversification) on financial openness, using a sample of 119 countries (including both developed and developing countries) over the period 1985–2014. Based on the Blundell and Bond’s two-step system Generalized Method of Moments, the analysis has revealed that both export product diversification and services export diversification influence positively financial openness. However, this outcome hides differentiated effects across countries in the full sample. Especially, countries with a very high real per capita income experience a positive effect of export concentration on financial openness, while for countries with a relatively lower per capita income, it is rather export diversification that drives positively financial openness. Interestingly, the effect of export diversification on financial openness depends on the size of external shocks that affect domestic economies, as well as countries’ economic growth performance. Overall, these findings add to the empirical literature on the effect of international trade on financial openness by showing that both export product diversification and services export diversification matter for financial openness.