IMPORT DEMAND FUNCTIONS: EVIDENCE FROM CIBS

This paper adopts the bounds testing approach to test for the validity of the cointegration or stationarity restriction embodied in five import demand model specifications for CIBS during the period 1970-2007. It identifies long-run relationships in a subset of the five models for each CIBS countries. We find that long-run income elasticities are much higher compared to earlier studies and are higher than the short-run counterparts for CIBS. In addition, contrary to the traditional wisdom, price elasticities are not significantly negative for these countries.