IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cii/cepidt/2024-02.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Pioneering a new classification: a comprehensive study of healthcare products in global trade

Author

Listed:
  • Pierre Cotterlaz
  • Guillaume Gaulier
  • Aude Sztulman
  • Deniz Ünal

Abstract

International trade in healthcare products took off in the 2000s at the height of hyper-globalisation. Twenty years on, the Covid-19 shock drove home to governments the importance of health security and trained the spotlight on the industrial sovereignty issues raised by the international organisation of production. However, the tangled web of international value chains has compromised the traceability of the manufacturing of these essential goods. In addition, the classification of healthcare products across a multitude of industries in the trade and production nomenclatures makes them hard to identify and muddies the picture further. In this paper, we have painstakingly identified these products and classified them together in one industry grouping to assess the scale of and trends in trade to meet the needs of national health systems. Covering a vast range of products (medicinal products and their compounds, medical technology equipment and small medical materials), this healthcare industry grouping has posted the strongest relative growth since 2000, rising to take the number two share of world trade in 2021 just behind electronic products. This paper details the nature of world trade in the healthcare industry grouping and its five branches by production stage (intermediate and final), type of trade flows (one-way and two-way) and quality/price range. It goes on to present how the advanced countries are positioned compared with the rest.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre Cotterlaz & Guillaume Gaulier & Aude Sztulman & Deniz Ünal, 2024. "Pioneering a new classification: a comprehensive study of healthcare products in global trade," Working Papers 2024-02, CEPII research center.
    • Handle: RePEc:cii:cepidt:2024-02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cepii.fr/PDF_PUB/wp/2024/wp2024-02.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Helble, Matthias, 2012. "More trade for better health? International trade and tariffs on health products," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2012-17, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    2. Chad P. Bown & Thomas J. Bollyky, 2022. "How COVID‐19 vaccine supply chains emerged in the midst of a pandemic," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 468-522, February.
    3. Helble, Matthias & Shepherd, Benjamin, 2017. "Trade in Health Products: Reducing Trade Barriers for Better Health," ADBI Working Papers 643, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    4. Gaulier, Guillaume & Sztulman, Aude & Ünal, Deniz, 2020. "Are global value chains receding? The jury is still out. Key findings from the analysis of deflated world trade in parts and components," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 219-236.
    5. Guillaume Gaulier & Aude Sztulman & Deniz Ünal, 2020. "Are global value chains receding? The jury is still out. Key findings from the analysis of deflated world trade in parts and components," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 161, pages 219-236.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pierre Cotterlaz & Guillaume Gaulier & Aude Sztulman & Deniz Ünal, 2024. "Pioneering a new classification: a comprehensive study of healthcare products in global trade," Working Papers DT/2024/01, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    2. Raphaël Chiappini & Cyrielle Gaglio, 2024. "Digital intensity, trade costs and exports' quality upgrading," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 709-747, February.
    3. Ayona Bhattacharjee & Rupa Chanda, 2023. "Trade in health products and population health: A long‐run relation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 182-207, January.
    4. Yi Wang & Yingming Zhu & Maojun Yu, 2023. "Identification of the most suitable areas for the development of headquarters economy in China: a theoretical framework and empirical case study," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(10), pages 11487-11515, October.
    5. Evgeny N. SMIRNOV & Sergey A. LUKYANOV, 2019. "Assessment of the transforming impact of global value chains on international trade," Upravlenets, Ural State University of Economics, vol. 10(3), pages 36-46, July.
    6. Stefan Pahl & Marcel P. Timmer, 2020. "Do Global Value Chains Enhance Economic Upgrading? A Long View," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(9), pages 1683-1705, July.
    7. Padmashree Gehl Sampath, 2022. "Strade Measures On Pharmaceutical Products: Can They Promote Local Production And Public Health?," Asia-Pacific Sustainable Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 29(2), pages 47-69, November.
    8. Anand Sharma & Vipin Sharma & Shekhar Tokas, 2022. "Institutional quality and health outcomes: evidence from the EU countries," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 11(2), pages 70-78.
    9. Lema, Rasmus & Pietrobelli, Carlo & Rabellotti, Roberta & Vezzani, Antonio, 2021. "Deepening or delinking? Innovative capacity and global value chain participation in the ICT sectors," MERIT Working Papers 2021-007, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    10. Bustamante, Juana & Oughton, Christine & Pesque-Cela, Vanesa & Tobin, Damian, 2023. "Resolving the patents paradox in the era of COVID-19 and climate change: Towards a patents taxonomy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(9).
    11. Jan Grumiller & Hannes Grohs & Christian Reiner, 2021. "“Increasing the resilience and security of supply ofproduction post-COVID-19” - The Case of Medical and Pharmaceutical Products," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 216, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    12. Fonseca, Elize Massard da & Shadlen, Kenneth C. & Achcar, Helena de Moraes, 2023. "Vaccine technology transfer in a global health crisis: Actors, capabilities, and institutions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(4).
    13. Helble, Matthias & Shepherd, Benjamin, 2017. "Trade in Health Products: Reducing Trade Barriers for Better Health," ADBI Working Papers 643, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    14. Fuchs, Andreas & Kaplan, Lennart & Kis-Katos, Krisztina & Schmidt, Sebastian S. & Turbanisch, Felix & Wang, Feicheng, 2022. "Tracking Chinese aid through China customs: Darlings and orphans after the COVID-19 outbreak," Kiel Working Papers 2232, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    15. Grumiller, Jan & Grohs, Hannes & Reiner, Christian, 2021. "Increasing resilience and security of supply production post-COVID-19: from global to regional value chains? Case studies on medical and pharmaceutical products," Research Reports 12/2021, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    16. Escaith, Hubert & Khorana, Sangeeta, 2020. "Mapping the Commonwealth Countries’ Participation in Global Value Chains," MPRA Paper 104441, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Sudhanshu Joshi & Manu Sharma, 2022. "A Literature Survey on Vaccine Supply Chain Management Amidst COVID-19: Literature Developments, Future Directions and Open Challenges for Public Health," World, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-28, October.
    18. Silvia Fabiani & Alberto Felettigh & Claire Giordano & Roberto Torrini, 2019. "Making room for new competitors. A comparative perspective on Italy’s exports in the euro-area market," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 530, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    19. -, 2020. "Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean 2020," La Inversión Extranjera Directa en América Latina y el Caribe, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 46541 edited by Eclac, September.
    20. Marcel P. Timmer & Bart Los & Robert Stehrer & Gaaitzen J. Vries, 2021. "Supply Chain Fragmentation and the Global Trade Elasticity: A New Accounting Framework," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 69(4), pages 656-680, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health Products; International Trade; Advanced Economies; Emerging and Developing Economies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • L65 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Chemicals; Rubber; Drugs; Biotechnology; Plastics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cii:cepidt:2024-02. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepiifr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.