“Made in China”: how does it affect our understanding of global market shares?

Abstract

We propose a comprehensive decomposition of changes in global market shares that accounts for the value-added content. We find that the ongoing globalization process affects market shares directly by shifting production from developed to developing countries. Moreover, apparent improvements in the relative quality of exported goods from most new EU member states and developing countries occur to some extent from higher quality imported inputs. Hence, the process of outsourcing high-quality production from developed countries plays an important role and reduces the contribution of residual non-price factors in explaining market share gains of developing countries.

Market Shares in Manufacturing Value-Added: Is the Picture Different?

“…Figure 3 compares the variations that the two shares registered in each country between the beginning and the end of the period under examination. As also found by Benkovskis and Wörz (2015), for a vast majority of countries both market shares exhibit very similar dynamics 12 ; in particular, both shares lead to the same partition between "gainers" (left panel of Figure 3) and "losers" (right panel), the only exception being Spain. China stands out for the very large increase in both dimensions: Chinese shares surged from 3.7 to 15.2% in value-added terms and from 3.4 to 13.8% in gross-exports terms, a result that mirrors a fall in GDPX-intensity in line with the world average.…”

The impact of China's imports on European Union industrial employment

“…China and India have been by far the most important manufacturing exporters with different implications on trade around the world (Stracca, ). Within roughly two decades China has risen from being a relatively unimportant low‐cost and low‐quality producer to becoming the world's largest supplier of goods (Benkovskis and Wörz, ). Between 1995 and 2010, China more than tripled its global market share and became the world's number‐one exporter in 2008, overtaking the market share held by the Central, Eastern and Southeastern Member States (Silgoner et al ., ).…”

“…Between 1995 and 2010, China more than tripled its global market share and became the world's number‐one exporter in 2008, overtaking the market share held by the Central, Eastern and Southeastern Member States (Silgoner et al ., ). This enormous gain in world market shares is often ascribed to the fact that China still has relatively low production costs and the fact that China has integrated deeper into the global production networks enabling the label ‘Made in China’ to cover inputs produced by other countries, implying that outsourcing and specialization play an important role in China's export success (Benkovskis and Wörz, ).…”

Chinese Services Gaining Significance in Global Production Chains

“…Other recent applications of the method to gross exports include, e.g.,Husted and Nishioka (2013),Cheptea, Fontagne, andZignago (2014), andPandiella (2015). Related analysis with comparison of gross and value-added exports is provided inBenkovskis and Wörz (2015).…”