Detalles del proyecto
Descripción
The literature has expressed doubts concerning the ability of RCA indexes of being suitable measures of comparative advantages. In particular, three main shortcomings affect RCA indexes First, RCA indexes might be unstable over time. Then, the shape of their distribution is asymmetric and exhibits fat tails. Last, they are subject to an ordinal ranking bias. Concerning time instability, this contradicts the fact that comparative advantages are sticky over time. Comparative advantages arise from structural factors like technology, factor endowments and institutions, so comparative advantages tend to change only in the medium/long term. However, because an RCA index is calculated on the basis of trade data, short-term fluctuations in trade flows might induce variations in an RCA index although comparative advantages might not change. Consequently, an RCA that varies substantially over time might not reveal well comparative advantages. Ultimately, an RCA index is preferable to others if the time stationarity of the former is lower than the asymmetry of the former. Higher stationarity implies that an RCA index is more able to reveal comparative advantages despite the short-term fluctuations inherent to trade flows. Concerning shape, the distribution of an RCA index should be as symmetric as possible. If the distribution is symmetric, the values greater than the mean offsets the values smaller than the mean. Assuming that the mean is close to the neutral value of the RCA index under consideration, symmetry implies that values revealing comparative advantages tends to offset the values revealing comparative advantages. This is consistent with the relative nature of comparative advantages: if a country has comparative advantages for a product, then this country has comparative disadvantages for at least one other product and at least one other country has comparative disadvantages for the former product. Ultimately, an RCA index is preferable to others if the asymmetry of the former is lower than the asymmetry of the former. In addition, the distribution of the values of an RCA indexes should contain a few outliers and therefore have thin tails. This is necessary to reflect the fact that, generally speaking, a country has high comparative advantages and disadvantages for a few products. Consequently, fat tails should be avoided because they imply that outliers are relatively more frequent. Last, Assume that country i is ranked as the x-th country according to an RCA index for some product k. There is an ordinal ranking bias for other product h if the corresponding value of the RCA index is higher but i has a lower rank than x, or is lower but i has a higher rank than x. Ordinal ranking bias should be avoided as much as possible to avoid misleading interpretations of comparative advantages,
Estado | Finalizado |
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Fecha de inicio/Fecha fin | 25/11/19 → 24/05/20 |