Empirical Analysis of Import Demand Behavior of Least Developed Countries

This paper examines the long-run stability of import demand function in least developed countries (LDCs) using recently developed panel cointegration techniques. We test for cointegration using two data sets: a) annual data for 15 countries from 1965 to 2004; and b) annual data for 22 countries from 1984 to 2004. We find that cointegration is present and that, indeed, there is a stable import demand function in these economies. The income elasticity ranges from 1.26 to 1.69 and price elasticity ranges from -0.72 to -0.75.