The decline in export instability

In earlier volumes of the BULLETIN Erb and Schiavo-Campo,' Clark Leith2 and then Lawson3 presented evidence which suggested that on average the degree of instability in total export earnings experienced by both developed and developing countries has declined. This note considers only developing countries on the grounds that the adverse internal effects of export fluctuations are thought to be more severe for the developing than for the developed countries. The objectives of this note are: (1) to question their finding for a sample of developing countries over a different data set and (2) to reinforce the observation by Clark Leith that the results obtained depend heavily on the definition of instability adopted and, therefore, on the index employed