Bahar, DanyStein, ErnestoWagner, RodrigoRosenow, Samuel2020-12-162017-09Bahar, Dany, Ernesto Stein, Rodrigo Wagner, and Samuel Rosenow. “The Birth and Growth of New Export Clusters: Which Mechanisms Drive Diversification?” CID Research Fellow and Graduate Student Working Paper Series 2017.86, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, September 2017.https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37366607Export diversification is associated with economic growth and development. Our paper explores competing mechanisms that mediate the emergence and growth of export products based on their economic relatedness to pre-existing exports. Our innovation is to simultaneously consider supply factors like labor, sourcing and technology; as well as demand factors like industry specific customer-linkages in a global setting. We find that, while technology and workforce similarity explain emergence and growth, pre-existing downstream industries remain a robust predictor of diversification, especially for jumpstarting new exports in developing countries. Our global stylized fact generalizes Javorcik’s (2004) view that spillovers are more likely in backward linkages.en-USResearch Paper or Report2020-12-1610.2139/ssrn.3035605