Can Asia sustain an export-led growth strategy in the aftermath of the global crisis? Exploring a neglected aspect

Employing panel data for Asian countries to distinguish between different kinds of export- and tradable-led growth, we find that the proportion of a country's manufactured exports that is destined for industrialized countries, a variable largely ignored by existing studies, is robustly associated with growth. This finding has crucial implications given the expected deceleration of industrialized country import growth in the coming years. Most importantly, and contrary to some recent studies, prospects for continued growth, now centered on domestic tradable consumption or on developing countries as markets, may be limited. South–South trade may not be a good substitute for South–North trade.