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

Steven Brakman; Charles Van Marrewijk

doi:10.1111/pirs.12208

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 journal › Article › peer-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 language	English
Pages (from-to)	61-92
Number of pages	32
Journal	Papers in Regional Science
Volume	96
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/pirs.12208
Publication status	Published - 1 Mar 2017
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

gross exports
Revealed comparative advantage
value-added exports

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10.1111/pirs.12208

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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.",

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

Abstract

Keywords

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