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Main Economic Characteristics of Small Countries: Some Empirical Evidence

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Book cover Small Countries in a Global Economy

Abstract

In the past four decades there have only been a few studies on the economic consequences of the size of countries (Robinson (1960), Khalaf (1971), Jalan (1982)) and only a few more on some of their special economic characteristics (Kuznets (1960), Michealy (1962), Lloyd (1968), Deans and Bernstein (1978), Senjur (1992a and 1992b), Damijan (1993, 1996), etc.). The main economic characteristics of small countries identified in those studies can be classified as a tendency towards:

  • greater foreign trade openness

  • greater concentration of production structure

  • limited ability to achieve economies of scale

  • greater commodity and geographic concentration of foreign trade

  • larger public sector

  • greater balance of payments difficulties

  • smaller value of export multiplier.

This paper was written while the author was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Kiel, Institute for Economic Policy, Germany

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Jože P. Damijan

  2. Institute for Economic Research, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Jože P. Damijan

Authors
  1. Jože P. Damijan
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fordham University, New York, USA

    Dominick Salvatore (Professor of Economics and Department Chair) (Professor of Economics and Department Chair)

  2. University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Marjan Svetličič (Professor of International Economics) (Professor of International Economics)

  3. Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Jože P. Damijan (Assistant Professor) (Assistant Professor)

Copyright information

© 2001 Jože P. Damijan

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Damijan, J.P. (2001). Main Economic Characteristics of Small Countries: Some Empirical Evidence. In: Salvatore, D., Svetličič, M., Damijan, J.P. (eds) Small Countries in a Global Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230513198_4

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