Exports, Inflation, and Growth (Electronic book text)

Exports are the mainstay of perhaps a fifth or more of the world's population. Also, they may be a major source of economic growth, both directly, because exports are part of production, and indirectly, as exports facilitate imports of goods and services, and of new ideas, knowledge, and technology. By encouraging specialization according to comparative advantage, high and rising exports enhance static and dynamic efficiency and hence also economic growth. The rapid expansion of exports relative to output in the fast-growing East Asian economies over the years is hardly an accident, for instance.