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

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  • Steven Brakman
  • Charles Van Marrewijk

Abstract

With the availability of international value added trade data it has become evident that gross export data and value added data do not provide the same information. Although gross exports crosses national borders and is the target of trade policy, value added data tell us what fragment in the production chain is internationally competitive in a particular country. With respect to comparative advantage the differences between the two types of data are often illustrated by means of examples using a single sector. In the Ricardian theory of comparative advantage, however, the position of a commodity versus all other commodities in a country determines whether or not a sector has a comparative (dis)-advantage. This implies that distributions of comparative advantage of all sectors should be compared and not just individual sectors. In this paper we determine the distributions of Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) in terms of gross exports and value added for 40 countries. A Systematic comparison of these distributions shows that the distributions of RCA calculated with gross exports and value added data are indeed significantly different from each other. After establishing these significant differences we use the Great Recession as an example to determine which RCA measure has the largest information content regarding the real economy. We find that RCA calculated with value added data is the most telling.
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  • Steven Brakman & Charles Van Marrewijk, 2017. "A closer look at revealed comparative advantage: Gross-versus value-added trade flows," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96(1), pages 61-92, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:presci:v:96:y:2017:i:1:p:61-92
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    Cited by:

    1. Steven Brakman & Tijl Hendrich & Charles van Marrewijk & Jennifer Olsen, 2023. "On the revealed comparative advantages of Dutch cities," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 785-825, August.
    2. Magdalena Olczyk & Aleksandra Kordalska, 2017. "Gross Exports Versus Value-Added Exports: Determinants and Policy Implications for Manufacturing Sectors in Selected CEE Countries," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(1), pages 91-109, January.
    3. Andrey A. Gnidchenko & Vladimir A. Salnikov, 2021. "Trade Intensity, Net Trade, and Revealed Comparative Advantage," HSE Working papers WP BRP 244/EC/2021, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    4. Roberta Capello & Andrea Caragliu & Ugo Fratesi, 2018. "Compensation modes of border effects in cross‐border regions," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 759-785, September.
    5. Dimitrios TSIOTAS & Thomas KRABOKOUKIS & Serafeim POLYZOS, 2020. "Detecting Interregional Patterns In Tourism Seasonality Of Greece: A Principal Components Analysis Approach," Regional Science Inquiry, Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists, vol. 0(2), pages 91-112, June.
    6. Peter A.G. Bergeijk & Steven Brakman & Charles Marrewijk, 2017. "Heterogeneous economic resilience and the great recession's world trade collapse," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96(1), pages 3-12, March.
    7. Steven Brakman & Charles van Marrewijk & Charles van Marrewijk, 2017. "Resilience, Supply Chains and the Great Recession," CESifo Working Paper Series 6505, CESifo.
    8. Steven Brakman & Tijl Hendrich & Charles van Marrewijk & Jennifer Olsen & Charles van Marrewijk, 2020. "The Comparative Advantage of Dutch Cities," CESifo Working Paper Series 8649, CESifo.
    9. Steven Brakman & Charles Marrewijk, 2019. "Heterogeneous country responses to the Great Recession: the role of supply chains," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 155(4), pages 677-705, November.
    10. Michael Stierle & Ulrike Stierle-von Schütz & Stijn Rocher, 2018. "How did Regional Economic Structures in the EU Change during the Economic Crisis?," European Economy - Discussion Papers 088, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    11. Junshi Li & Yao Pan, 2023. "EU and China’s comparative advantage, trade complementarity and trade specialization dynamics in agricultural products," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 351-379, September.
    12. Danna-Buitrago, Jenny Paola & Stellian, Rémi, 2022. "Which revealed comparative advantage index to choose? Theoretical and empirical considerations," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), December.
    13. Jenny P. Danna-Buitrago & Rémi Stellian, 2022. "A New Class of Revealed Comparative Advantage Indexes," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 477-503, July.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F60 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - General

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