This paper is a methodological contribution to the calculation and use of Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) indexes. We first explain why the RCA index of Contribution to the Trade Balance (CTB) is theoretically relevant. However, as other RCA indexes might also be reliable measures of comparative advantages, we present standardized tools to compare RCA indexes computed for a given set of countries, products and periods. We illustrate with Colombia in the Pacific Alliance. In that case, the CTB index should be preferred to eight other representative RCA indexes. Therefore, the CTB index might be useful for empirical analysis, besides its theoretical relevance. Last, we suggest highlighting products that constitute strengths (weaknesses) for a country in international trade according to its ability to maintain through time the highest (lowest) CTB index compared with other countries. Again, we illustrate with Colombia in the Pacific Alliance and discuss implications for Colombian economic policy.
This article studies the competitiveness of Colombian agricultural products relative to those of the United States, with a view to assessing the extent to which the free trade agreement between the two countries represents a risk or an opportunity for Colombia. Colombia's revealed comparative advantages, in the trade zone it forms with the United States, are calculated for 60 groups of agricultural products and their derivatives, chosen from the Standard Classification for International Trade (SITC), using the method of the Center for International Prospective Studies and Information (CEPII). Most of the product groups display no comparative advantage or comparative disadvantage, so their competitiveness needs to be strengthened to enable trade in agricultural products with the United States to really contribute to the growth of the Colombian economy.
This paper provides theoretical evidence about financial distress in the business sector in relation to firms' targeted free cash flow (FCF). An agent-based model of a pure market economy is designed so that a population of firms interact with one another and with a bank. The model determines the interfirm payment network arising from supplier-customer relationships on the basis of a random graph with uniform attachment mechanisms. The interfirm payment network shapes both the liquidity available to each firm and the debts firms incur to finance these payments. Eventually, firms might not have sufficient liquidity to meet their debt requirements, hence their financial distress. Firms that target higher FCFs must reduce their payments to suppliers for the same amount of payments they expect to receive from customers. This influences the interfirm payment network and, therefore, firms' financial distress. On this basis, computational experiments introduce variations in FCF targets. The lowest FCF targets lead to the lowest levels of financial distress in the business sector. Our simplified case of interactions opens the way for further research that employs more complex agent-based models.
ResumenEn este artículo se estudia la competitividad de los productos agropecuarios colombianos con respecto a los estadounidenses, con el fin de establecer en qué medida el tratado de libre comercio entre los dos países representa un riesgo o una oportunidad para dichos productos. Se calculan las ventajas comparativas reveladas de Colombia en la zona de intercambios que este país conforma con los Estados Unidos, según el método del Centro de Estudios Prospectivos y de Información Internacional (CEPII), para 60 grupos de la Clasificación Uniforme para el Comercio Internacional (CUCI) de productos agropecuarios y sus derivados. En la mayor parte de los casos los grupos no presentan ninguna ventaja comparativa o presentan desventajas. Por lo tanto, es necesario fortalecer su competitividad para que los intercambios de productos agropecuarios con los Estados Unidos puedan realmente contribuir al crecimiento de la economía colombiana.
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