A closer look at revealed comparative advantage: Gross-versus value-added trade flows

Steven Brakman*, Charles Van Marrewijk

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The improved availability of value-added trade data allows us to identify more clearly what fragment in the production chain is internationally competitive in a particular country. Rather than focusing on particular sectors or examples, we determine the distributions of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) in terms of both gross exports and value-added for 40 countries. Systematically comparing these distributions reveals significant differences for RCA based on gross exports versus value-added data. Using data on the Great Recession as an example, we argue that value-added RCA is more informative regarding the workings of the real economy than gross sector RCA.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)61-92
Number of pages32
JournalPapers in Regional Science
Volume96
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • gross exports
  • Revealed comparative advantage
  • value-added exports

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