I am analysing the effects and ways out of primary commodity dependence for a specific country
Dear Caleb. The simplest way to see the effects of primary commodity dependence on GDP is to regress the latter on the Share of primary commodities in total exports. You need data on the Share taken by these little or no value added goods in total exports of Mozambique with time series data, say 1970-2012. You can then model variants of the first equation that include other factors determining GDP. Do this for both long run (in levels) and short run (first differences) models and see if the effect is consistent for both horizons. Panel data for say 3-5 countries would be a better option to enrich your findings.
Thanks a lot, i was thinking of taking different sectors of an economy, say mining and agriculture which are mostly primary oriented with no value addition and regress them using panel data analysis
James Fearon (2005, Journal of Conflict Resolution) has done a lot to look at the impact of resource dependence on a country's propensity for falling into civil war. I think he keeps his data for this paper on his website: http://www.stanford.edu/~jfearon/.
I suggest you look at the staple theory of international trade. You can elaborate over the article:
Staple Theory of Economic Growth. Morris Altman
Victoria University of Wellington - School of Economics & Finance
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1539790
ggod luck and let me know