Revealed comparative advantage of Russian agricultural exports
2013
Ishchukova, N., Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague (Czech Republic). Dept. of Economics
This paper studies the issue of revealed comparative advantage in the case of the Russian foreign trade in agricultural products and foodstuffs. The objective of this study is to analyze specialization and the competitive performance of the Russian agricultural sector and to determine whether or not patterns of comparative advantage for Russia have undergone significant changes over the period 1998-2010. The analysis is performed using several measures of revealed comparative advantage: classical Balassa's index, Vollrath's index and Lafay index. Balassa's index identified a group of products, which has relatively stable comparative advantage during the whole period. Among those products we can count cereals (wheat, barley, etc.), their by-products (for example bran of wheat) and products of their processing (cereals preparations, etc.), as well as oilseeds, vegetable oils and chocolate. Vollrath's index showed that the number of products that have revealed competitive advantage was steadily growing during the period. Lafay index, used in the analysis by regions, showed that Russia has comparative advantages in relation to CIS countries and Asian countries due to its geographical location and good trade relations. Primary products have the comparative advantage in relation to EU and Asian countries. In relation to the Commonwealth of Independent States and Americas on the contrary the processed products have comparative advantages, while the most of primary products have comparative disadvantage. In relation to the whole world, analysis has also revealed a shift of comparative advantage from by-products (e.g. bran of wheat, sunflower cake etc.) in 1998-2001 to primary products in 2002-2010 (wheat, barley, whole cow milk, sunflower seed etc.).
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