Massimo Tamberi

Overall Specialization Empirics: Techniques and Applications

It is customary in the empirical trade literature to analyze specialization patterns of countries using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) measures. This paper explores the informational content of the most commonly used RCA index: the Balassa (1965) Index of RCA.After describing the properties of the Balassa Index, we propose a research strategy based on descriptive statistics, kernel density estimation, concentration and Markov stationarity methods in order to analyze the dynamics of overall specialization.

A Note on the Balassa Index of Revealed Comparative Advantage

It is customary in the empirical trade literature to analyze specialization patterns of countries using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) measures. This paper explores the pros and cons of the most commonly used RCA index: the Balassa (1965) Index of RCA. After describing the properties of the Balassa Index, we analyze two different normalizations of the original Index recently proposed by Laursen (2000) and Proudman and Redding (1998) to remedy some of the shortcomings of the original index, and we propose an alternative and more traditional strategy in order to analyze the dynamics of specialization.

Determinants of Export Diversification: An Empirical Investigation

Empirical findings confirm that relatively high specialisation of economic structures tends to be associated with low levels of income per capita, but countries diversify their export structures along their path of growth. However, usually only per capita income, and eventually, country-specific fixed effects are the sole explanatory variables taken into consideration in the estimation of specialisation curves. We extend the analysis of specialisation - economic development nexus and search for the determinants of trade diversification process. Using a panel data-set for 60 countries and twenty years (1985-2004), we combine synthetic specialisation measures obtained with manufacturing exports data (SITC Rev2, 3 digit) with a wide range of country-specific variables characterising their size, geographical conditions, endowments, human capital or institutional setting. It turns out that distance from major markets and country size are the most relevant and robust determinants of export diversification process, explaining together around half of between country variability in specialisation patterns. The results are robust to changes in the disaggregation scheme and in the estimation procedure.

What Determines Export Diversification in the Development Process? Empirical Assessment

This paper assesses the role played by country‐specific factors as determinants of relative export diversification. Using a panel data set for 60 countries and 20 years (1985–2004), we confirm that even after clearing out differences in income per capita, cross‐country variability in the degree of export diversification is significant. In general, apart from per capita income, features influencing the size of accessible markets (domestic and foreign) are the most relevant and robust determinants of the export diversification process. Diversification opportunities grow if countries are large and not located far from economic core areas and when barriers to trade are restricted.

Semiparametric analysis of the specialization-income relationship

In this paper we investigate the empirical relationship between overall specialization and per capita income. The metric we use to measure overall specialization is the median of the sectoral distribution of the Balassa index of Revealed Comparative Advantages applied to 4-digit (SITC rev.2) sectoral export manufactured data for 39 countries over the period 1985-2001. The result of the semiparametric analysis is that a negative relationship between this metric and per capita income emerges.

Relative Product Diversification in the Course of Economic Development: Import-Export Analysis

This paper contributes to trade diversification literature by comparing changes in relative (i.e. assessed in comparison with world patterns) heterogeneity of import and export structures in the process of economic development. In particular, by focusing on the diversification of imports, we add a missing piece to already analysed export trends. We use highly disaggregated trade statistics (4963 product lines) for 163 countries (1988-2010) and find that, despite differences in levels (imports being typically more diversified than exports, particularly at lower stages of economic development), they follow a similar path of evolution in the development process. Progressing relative diversification of both import and export structures accompanies economic growth, while re-specialisation is plausible only in case of few specific countries (very rich, small ones, abundant in oil/petrol). By comparing the results obtained with the use of alternative estimation methods (non-parametric, semi-parametric and parametric), we demonstrate the robustness of these findings. As income per capita grows, import (and export) structures of countries usually become less specialised with respect to the typical benchmark.

Geography, Structural Change and Economic Development

The authors in this book regard the process of economic expansion as a non-homogeneous and multifaceted phenomenon which has deeply affected human welfare, and cultural, social and political change. The book is a bridge between the theorists (Rosenstein-Rodan, Lewis, Myrdal, and Hirschmann) who in the post-war period analyzed regional inequalities, structural change and dualism, and the modern literature on economic growth. The latter has emphasized the existence of multiple equilibria, bifurcations and various types of dynamic complexity, and clarified the conditions for the emergence of phenomena such as cumulative causation, path dependence and hysteresis. These are the typical ingredients of structural change, economic development or underdevelopment.

Competitività, crescita e localizzazione in un settore tradizionale

In questo lavoro viene analizzata la dinamica del settore calzaturiero italiano a partire dal 1960. Tale dinamica e osservata da molteplici punti di vista; tuttavia la chiave interpretativa di fondo si basa sull’idea che l’aspetto fondamentale da cui partire e costituito dalla posizione dell’Italia nel processo di divisione internazionale del lavoro. Il processo di crescita, i primi segni di declino, le dinamiche localizzative all’interno dei confini nazionali possono essere ragionevolmente interpretate come riflessi prima dei vantaggi competitivi che l’Italia ha mostrato nei confronti dei paesi del centro e nord Europa, poi dell’emergere di alcuni PVS come principali produttori mondiali. L’Italia, in questo settore, passa insomma da paese inseguitore a paese inseguito e sembra cominciare quel tipo di parabola discendente sperimentata, a partire da oltre tre decenni fa, da Germania, Francia e Regno Unito.