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2007 Annual Report—Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Opportunity Knocks: Selling Our Services to the World

Acknowledgments

“Opportunity Knocks” was written by W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm. The essay is based on research conducted by Cox, senior vice president and chief economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Alm is senior economics writer in the Bank's Research Department. Julia K. Carter, a senior economic analyst at the Bank, provided important research assistance on the project.

The authors wish to thank Professor James L. Seale of the University of Florida for providing data and for numerous discussions.

Exhibit Notes and Data Sources

All consumption and income per capita are adjusted for purchasing power parity.

Exhibits 1, 2 and 3

James Seale Jr., Anita Regmi and Jason Bernstein (2003), “International Evidence on Food Consumption Patterns,” Technical Bulletin no.1904, U.S. Department of Agriculture, October.

The Conference Board and Groningen Growth and Development Centre, Total Economy Database, January 2007.

World Bank, World Development Indicators database.

Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), national economic accounts, for GDP chain price index.

International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Economic Outlook, October 2007.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), The World Factbook 2007.

Exhibit 1: Luxembourg is excluded because its per capita GDP of $53,074 is too high to be plotted on the scale. Food includes food at home, beverages and tobacco. Housing includes rent and utilities. Household operations includes furniture and maintenance. Medical includes foreign patients treated at U.S. hospitals. Education includes foreign students in the U.S.

Exhibit 2: The chart excludes Madagascar, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, whose recreation elasticities are too high to be plotted on the scale used. Luxembourg is not shown because its income is too high to be plotted.

Exhibit 3: Authors' calculations.

Exhibit 4
BEA, international economic accounts, for international services, and national economic accounts, for GDP chain price index. Exhibit 5

BEA, national economic accounts, for GDP chain price indexes.

Exhibit 6
BEA, national economic accounts, for exports and GDP chain price index.

Exhibit 7
BEA, international economic accounts, for international services.

Exhibit 8
World Bank, World Development Indicators database.

CIA, The World Factbook 2007.

Exhibit 9
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Current Employment Statistics, 1990–2007; Occupational Employment Statistics, May 2006.

World Bank, World Development Indicators database.

CIA, The World Factbook 2007.

Exhibit 10
BLS, Occupational Employment Statistics, May 2006. The jobs are classified in the service or goods sector based on the industry, not the work the job entails.