Recent Trends for the Importance of State Exports

Abstract

Exports have continued to play an increasingly important role in the United States economy. The purpose of this paper is to look at the change in the relative importance of state exports over the last decade. Two major categories of analysis are conducted: 1) the change in state exports as a percent of U.S. exports, and 2) the change in state exports as a percent of state gross domestic product (GDP). The empirical results reveal a change in the relative importance of state exports for several states. Fifteen states had statistically significant increases in the mean percentage of state exports as a percent of U.S. exports; five states had statistically significant decreases. Eighteen states had statistically significant increases in the mean percentage of state exports as a percent of state GDP; no states had decreases.