IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa10p809.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Determinants of regional comparative advantages in food industries

Author

Listed:
  • Sara Johansson
  • Therese Norman

Abstract

International markets for food products have shown a strong growth during recent years. Trade flows between countries are increasing and can be seen as a reflection of a higher degree of competition in both domestic and international markets. At the same time, consumers show a growing interest in product attributes associated with the geographical origin of the product and/or specific production methods. This paper studies the regional specialization in food industries and uses a shift-share analysis to identify regions with comparative advantages in food production in Sweden. The Swedish food sector is of a significant size in the domestic economy, and is the fourth largest industry in the Swedish manufacturing sector. The food sector host both small and large firms, and is represented in all (geographical) parts of the country. As in many European countries, the food sector is important with respect to employment in rural areas and therefore an obvious target for rural policies. Recent studies of food industries indicate that differences in regional characteristics, such as concentration of firms in the industry (clusters) and concentration of food exporters partly explain the export behavior of firms in the Swedish food industry and of food-processing firms in France . These findings indicate that location-specific factors impact on firms' competitiveness in international markets. This paper explores this issue further in an empirical analysis of regional comparative advantages in food processing. The purpose of this study is to analyze what type of regional characteristics that stimulate regional specialization in food industries. Of particular interest is the importance of unique regional food specialties, small-scale food manufacturing, size of the local market and accessibility to foreign customers in shaping regional comparative advantages in food manufacturing.

Suggested Citation

  • Sara Johansson & Therese Norman, 2011. "Determinants of regional comparative advantages in food industries," ERSA conference papers ersa10p809, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p809
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa10/ERSA2010finalpaper809.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krugman, Paul, 1980. "Scale Economies, Product Differentiation, and the Pattern of Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(5), pages 950-959, December.
    2. Gilles Duranton & Diego Puga, 2000. "Diversity and Specialisation in Cities: Why, Where and When Does it Matter?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 37(3), pages 533-555, March.
    3. Oral Capps & Stephen W. Fuller & John P. Nichols, 1988. "Assessing Opportunities in Food and Fiber Processing and Distribution," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 70(2), pages 462-468.
    4. Stephan J. Goetz, 1997. "State- and County-Level Determinants of Food Manufacturing Establishment Growth: 1987–93," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 79(3), pages 838-850.
    5. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    6. Newman, Robert J, 1983. "Industry Migration and Growth in the South," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(1), pages 76-86, February.
    7. Krugman, Paul R., 1979. "Increasing returns, monopolistic competition, and international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 469-479, November.
    8. Arthur, W. Brian, 1990. "'Silicon Valley' locational clusters: when do increasing returns imply monopoly?," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 235-251, June.
    9. Raymond Vernon, 1966. "International Investment and International Trade in the Product Cycle," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 80(2), pages 190-207.
    10. Lancaster, Kelvin, 1980. "Intra-industry trade under perfect monopolistic competition," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 151-175, May.
    11. M. V. Posner, 1961. "International Trade And Technical Change," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(3), pages 323-341.
    12. Krugman, Paul R, 1981. "Intraindustry Specialization and the Gains from Trade," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 959-973, October.
    13. Alan Barkema & Mark Drabenstott & Julie A. Stanley, 1990. "Processing food in farm states: an economic development strategy for the 1990s," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 75(Jul), pages 5-23.
    14. Börje Johansson & Charlie Karlsson & Roger R. Stough (ed.), 2002. "Regional Policies and Comparative Advantage," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2545.
    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. Sara Johansson & Therese Norman, 2011. "Determinants of regional comparative advantages in food industries," ERSA conference papers ersa10p1663, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Dariusz Kotlewski, 2022. "Przesłanki za wykorzystaniem rachunkowości wzrostu gospodarczego w badaniu specjalizacji regionalnych," Ekonomista, Polskie Towarzystwo Ekonomiczne, issue 2, pages 235-258.
    3. Magdalena Olczyk, 2016. "International Competitiveness in the Economics Literature: A Bibliometric Study," Athens Journal of Business & Economics, Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER), vol. 2(4), pages 375-388, October.
    4. Andersson, Martin & Johansson, Sara, 2009. "Scale and Scope - human capital and the structure of regional export flows," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 195, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    5. Andersson, Martin & Johansson, Sara, 2010. "Human capital and the structure of regional export flows," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 230-240.
    6. Paul Krugman, 2009. "The Increasing Returns Revolution in Trade and Geography," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(3), pages 561-571, June.
    7. Isabel Proença & Horácio Faustino, 2015. "Modelling bilateral intra-industry trade indexes with panel data: a semiparametric approach," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 865-884, September.
    8. Roberto Camagni & Roberta Capello, 2011. "Spatial Effects of Economic Integration: A Conceptualisation from Regional Growth and Location Theories," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume II, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Chengang Wang & Yingqi Wei & Xiaming Liu, 2010. "Determinants of Bilateral Trade Flows in OECD Countries: Evidence from Gravity Panel Data Models," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(7), pages 894-915, July.
    10. Urban Gråsjö, 2008. "University-educated Labor, R&D and Regional Export Performance," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 31(3), pages 211-256, July.
    11. Toraubally, Waseem A., 2023. "Comparative advantage with many goods: New treatment and results," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(3), pages 1188-1201.
    12. Andre Nassif & Carmem Aparecida Feijo & Eliane Araújo, 2016. "Structural change, catching up and falling behind in the BRICS: A comparative analysis based on trade pattern and Thirlwall’s Law," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 69(279), pages 373-421.
    13. J. Hanna & L. L鶩 & S. Petit, 2015. "Intra-tourism trade, income distribution and tourism endowment: an econometric investigation," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(21), pages 2184-2200, May.
    14. Paas, Tiiu, 2002. "Gravity Approach for Exploring Baltic Sea Regional Integration in the Field of International Trade," Discussion Paper Series 26379, Hamburg Institute of International Economics.
    15. Jaya Prakash Pradhan & Mohammad Zohair, 2015. "Subnational Export Performance and Determinants," Review of Market Integration, India Development Foundation, vol. 7(2), pages 133-174, August.
    16. Fujita, Masahisa & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2009. "New Economic Geography: An appraisal on the occasion of Paul Krugman's 2008 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 109-119, March.
    17. Leitão, Nuno Carlos, 2012. "Globalization and United States’ Intra-Industry Trade," MPRA Paper 39756, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Peter K. Schott, 2001. "Do Rich and Poor Countries Specialize in a Different Mix of Goods? Evidence from Product-Level US Trade Data," NBER Working Papers 8492, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Masoud Nonejad, 2012. "Measuring Goods Quality in Iran’s Intra- Industry Trade with G-8 Member States," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 4(6), pages 344-353.
    20. Seref Saygili & Cengiz Cihan & Cihan Yalcin & Turknur Hamsici, 2010. "Turkiye Imalat Sanayiin Ithalat Yapisi," Working Papers 1002, Research and Monetary Policy Department, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey.

    More about this item

    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:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p809. 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: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    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.