SUMMARY
The present study extends the analysis of export instability in developing countries to a detailed consideration of the instability of agricultural exports, which represent a large part of total exports from developing countries and seem to be particularly prone to fluctuations of various kinds. In order to obtain a full picture of agricultural export instability, the analysis is conducted at four different levels of aggregation with a common time period. Comparisons of the instability of agricultural exports with that of total merchandise exports are made in order to ascertain whether agricultural exports are more unstable. The relationship between the instability of world markets and that of individual country exports are then examined. Tests are also made of the possible effects of agricultural export instability on the developing countries’ economies, and the results are compared with those of similar tests conducted for total exports.JEL: O13, Q17, F49