Ascertaining the competitiveness of Thai exports to PRC

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to fundamentally focus on the comparative advantage measurement and the trend of change in the international competitiveness of five Thai economic products exporting to the People’s Republic of China during the first half of the 2010s via the analysis of the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index and market share. Design/methodology/approach The RCA index has been computed to show the comparative advantages of the product to a certain extent: whether it is cost-effective to produce that product in a certain location compared to opportunity cost of the resources in producing that product. The data set of number and value of five important export products from Thailand to China during 2010-2013 has been obtained from the Thai Ministry of Commerce and Thai-Chinese Business Information Centre. Findings The study reveals that of these five important economic products, cassava has the highest comparative advantage and continues to have a rapid growth trend, whilst computer equipment and components have been shown to have comparative disadvantage and the lowest comparative advantage index scores. Research limitations/implications Measuring with various sophisticated indices may provide clearer results. Also, according to unavailability of data set, the four-year period may not be able to show the long-term trend of competitiveness. Future studies are encouraged to study in the longer-term period with numerous indices. Practical implications The research also provides policy implications and measures to develop each sector to enhance competitiveness. Originality/value This is the original attempt to use both indices to assess the competitiveness of important Thai exports to the Chinese market.

Analysis of Export Competitiveness Textile and Apparel Indonesia, China, India

“…The final results of this study provide an overview of: Comparative Advantages and Competitiveness, (Maryam et al, 2018). Balassa's competitiveness indicators are ex-post concepts (Balassa, 1965;Suwannarat, 2017). Many studies have determined a country's competitiveness via the paradigm of Balassa by comparing commodity share in its exports to the commodity share in world exports, referred to as its revealed comparative advantage (RCA) (Balassa, 1965;Seyoum, 2007;Huo, 2014;Suwannarat, 2017).…”

“…Balassa's competitiveness indicators are ex-post concepts (Balassa, 1965;Suwannarat, 2017). Many studies have determined a country's competitiveness via the paradigm of Balassa by comparing commodity share in its exports to the commodity share in world exports, referred to as its revealed comparative advantage (RCA) (Balassa, 1965;Seyoum, 2007;Huo, 2014;Suwannarat, 2017). If the RCA is greater than 1, it is taken as evidence of international competitiveness.…”

“…It compares how well a country has done in export of some particular set of goods. Balassa (1967;Suwannarat, 2017) claims that comparative advantage is revealed by observed trade patterns, i.e. high shares of export markets.…”

“…high shares of export markets. RCA is grounded in conventional trade theory and measures a country's exports of a commodity relative to that of a set of countries (Seyoum, 2007;Suwannarat, 2017 This method recognizes changes or shifts in comparative advantage for each product, which is developing and going down. TSR = E (ij) -M (ij) E (ij) + M (ij) (2) Where : E (ij) = Export value of commodity i from each country j every year M (ij) = Import value of commodity i from each country j every year TSR Method Stages: 1.…”

International Trade Disputes over Renewable Energy—the Case of the Solar Photovoltaic Sector

“…The value of index varies from zero to infinity, where 0 means no exports in the group of products. If the value of RCA or BRCA index is over 1, a considered sector/industry is relatively competitive compared to the rest of economy [69]. The power of comparative advantage can be considered as four classes: (a) comparative disadvantage (0 < RCA ≤ 1), (b) a weak comparative advantage (1 < RCA ≤ 2), (c) moderate comparative advantage (2 < RCA ≤ 4).…”