Measuring Subnational Trade Competitiveness

Area of Science:

• Economics
• Economic Geography
• International Trade

Background:

• Measuring territorial competitiveness is crucial for understanding economic dynamics.
• Existing measures often overlook subnational economic specialization and its link to national trade patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and introduce novel measures of subnational trade competitiveness.
• To quantify regional economic focus on national comparative advantages.
• To provide a comprehensive dataset for analyzing trade impacts.

Main Methods:

• Utilized country-level revealed comparative advantage (RCA) at the industry level.
• Integrated RCA data with subnational employment structure data.
• Developed new indices for subnational trade competitiveness.

Main Results:

• Introduced new measures of subnational trade competitiveness.
• Compiled data for 6,475 regions across 63 countries over 21 years.
• Demonstrated the plausibility of the measures through descriptive evidence and case studies (Bolivia, South Korea).

Conclusions:

• The new measures effectively capture regional economic specialization in relation to national comparative advantages.
• The dataset offers valuable insights for research on territorial competitiveness, trade impacts, and globalization.
• The findings have implications for understanding regional economic development and policy-making.