Title:
India and China: Changing Patterns of Comparative Advantage?
India and China: Changing Patterns of Comparative Advantage?
Author(s)
Veeramani, C.
Advisor(s)
Editor(s)
Collections
Supplementary to
Permanent Link
Abstract
The present paper attempts a comparative analysis of the changing patterns of exports and
specialization in India and China since 1980. Drawing upon the Chinese experience, the study
throws some light on what needs to be done for accelerating India’s exports. The analysis shows
that the fear of “Chinese invasion” of India’s export markets is only a popular myth. On a more
general level, the analysis provides some insights into the patterns of resource reallocation under
trade liberalization and its implications for the cost of adjustments. The analysis excludes the
service sector exports and uses data on merchandise exports at the 3-digit level of SITC during
the period 1980-2003. The data are taken from the various issues of the Handbook of Statistics
brought out by UNCTAD. The rest of the paper is structured as follows. A brief overview of trade policy changes in India
and China is provided in Section II. The impact of the policy changes on aggregate exports in
both the countries is briefly discussed in Section III. The changing patterns of exports and
comparative advantages in the two countries are analyzed in Section IV. Some concluding
remarks and implications of the findings for policy are provided in Section V.
Sponsor
Date Issued
2006-10
Extent
Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Proceedings