Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins the exploration into exports role in economic growth by reviewing both the theoretical and empirical economic literature on exports and economic growth. It examines the first era of globalization classified as the period between 1820 and 1913. The book also examines trade policy in the postwar era, highlighting the similarity with the earlier era of globalization in engaging newly emerging independent colonies in the global trading network after World War II in Asia and Africa and then from West Asia and Eastern Europe with the end of the Cold War. It examines crossover effects of regional trade agreements (RTAs) of competing nations on one's own trade partners. The chapter also examines the effect of exports on real gross domestic product (GDP) fluctuations over time using the time series and panel data estimation technique.