Estimating the efficiency of exports by means of brief, feasible business interviews

Abstract

In this paper I propose, through, brief business interviews, an approach to assessing the efficiency of Kenya's exports of processed agricultural products to advanced-country markets. In the paper, I explain 1) why I am interested in these products, 2) the questions I will ask in the interviews, and 3) the various formulas for efficiency which I will calculate. Throughout, the efficiency concept used is the marginal domestic cost of foreign exchange; in essence, it consists of an attempt to find, for each product a rough estimate of the shillings' worth of Kenyan resources expended per (say) U.S. dollar's worth of (net) foreign exchange earned.