This article develops a new extension of the constant-market-shares model, attributing the gains or losses of market share of an exporter in a specific market to its competitors. The method is then applied to Brazil's exports of manufactured products to the US market, determining from which countries and by how much Brazil gained market share, and to which countries Brazil lost market share in the period between 1992, 1999 and 2004. The bilateral gains and losses of Brazil to OECD countries are shown to be related to changes in the relative unit labour costs of these countries through a two-period panel data analysis.

Given Latin America's general specialization in resource-based products, this paper focuses on the question of whether or not a country specialized in resource-based products can have high rates of export and economic growth. To examine this question, an attempt is made to develop and apply a new taxonomy to a sample of resource-based products exported by Latin American countries to the United States. This taxonomy is based on the role played by prices in the mechanism through which countries compete in specific international product markets. Resource-based products are then classified as homogeneous, differentiated, or highly differentiated goods. The paper argues that exports of countries specialized in differentiated or highly differentiated goods tend to be much more dynamic than of those specialized in homogeneous goods.

Chami's method for calculating how much of an exporter's market share change can be attributed to each competitor has regularly been applied in the literature, but it has not been related to any theory yet. Here, an attempt is made to examine the trade models that can provide the theoretical foundations for the method, clarifying the assumptions underlying its results. It is shown that the method is consistent with most of the main trade models found in the literature.

The link between relative prices across countries and trade costs requires a theoretical foundation that is absent in the literature to date. Empirical tests on the law of one price are based on an arbitrage equation, which is of very limited relevance in understanding this link. The application of a new set of arbitrage equations to the tin trade market yields results that are consistent with our theoretical expectations. We find evidence in favor of the law of one price between the United States and Japan. However, evidence of price discrimination is also found for the Los Angeles market.

This paper introduces and applies a new methodology to deal with competition among exporters of vertically differentiated products. The novel methodology is applied to Japanese imports of manufacturing goods at the most detailed level of classification. It is shown that the North lost market share in direct competition with the South in all of the three product segments (low, medium and high), and in every sub‐period from 1988 to 2010, except in the high segment in the 1988–91 sub‐period. Most of the North's direct loss to the South took place in the low and medium segments. China accounts for most of the South's direct gains in these two segments, while the rest of the developing countries of Asia accounts for most of these gains in the high segment.