IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eurase/v8y2018i2d10.1007_s40822-018-0098-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

India’s comparative advantages in services trade

Author

Listed:
  • Hiranya K. Nath

    (Sam Houston State University)

  • Binoy Goswami

    (South Asian University)

Abstract

In the recent decades, India has not only experienced substantial growth in its services trade with the rest of the world but has also become a net exporter of services. Using the annual exports and imports data of 10 disaggregated service items from 2000 to 2013, this paper computes and analyzes various comparative advantage (CA) measures. The analysis reveals that India has had a CA in computer and information services and other business services (that include a wide range of information-intensive services) for the entire sample period. These two service categories together accounted for more than two-thirds of the total commercial services export from India. Furthermore, according to an alternative CA measure that considers intra-industry trade, India seems to have CA over the rest of the world in different services such as travel, communication services, and personal, cultural, and related services as well. This paper further explores the shape and dynamics of the distribution of the CA measures by employing a nonparametric method. The distributional dynamics analysis indicates that India is more likely to lose CA over the rest of the world than to gain dominance from a comparative disadvantage (CDA) position in services trade.

Suggested Citation

  • Hiranya K. Nath & Binoy Goswami, 2018. "India’s comparative advantages in services trade," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 8(2), pages 323-342, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurase:v:8:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s40822-018-0098-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s40822-018-0098-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40822-018-0098-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40822-018-0098-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nath, Hiranya K. & Liu, Lirong & Tochkov, Kiril, 2015. "Comparative advantages in U.S. bilateral services trade with China and India," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 79-92.
    2. Ballance, Robert H & Forstner, Helmut & Murray, Tracy, 1987. "Consistency Tests of Alternative Measures of Comparative Advantage," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 69(1), pages 157-161, February.
    3. Imre Fertö & L. J. Hubbard, 2003. "Revealed Comparative Advantage and Competitiveness in Hungarian Agri–Food Sectors," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 247-259, February.
    4. Ranjan Kumar Dash & Purna Chandra Parida, 2012. "Services trade and economic growth in India: an analysis in the post-reform period," International Journal of Economics and Business Research, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(3), pages 326-345.
    5. Veena K. Pailwar & Nirav R. Shah, 2009. "Revealed comparative advantages for India in services trade," International Journal of Trade and Global Markets, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(2), pages 109-127.
    6. Balasubramanyam, Ahalya & Balasubramanyam, V. N., 1997. "Singer, services and software," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(11), pages 1857-1861, November.
    7. Siegfried Bender & Kui-Wai Li, 2002. "The Changing Trade and Revealed Comparative Advantages of Asian and Latin American Manufacture Exports," Working Papers 843, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    8. Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo, 2000. "Reputation Effects and the Limits of Contracting: A Study of the Indian Software Industry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 989-1017.
    9. Carolan, Terrie & Singh, Nirvikar & Talati, Cyrus, 1998. "The composition of U.S.-East Asia trade and changing comparative advantage," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 361-389.
    10. Luca De Benedictis, 2005. "Three Decades of Italian Comparative Advantages," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(11), pages 1679-1709, November.
    11. Amita Batra & Zeba Khan, 2005. "Revealed comparative advantage: An analysis for India and China," Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi Working Papers 168, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi, India.
    12. Ranjan Dash & P. Parida, 2013. "FDI, services trade and economic growth in India: empirical evidence on causal links," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 217-238, August.
    13. Balassa, Bela, 1986. "Comparative Advantage in Manufactured Goods: A Reappraisal," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 68(2), pages 315-319, May.
    14. Arnaud Costinot & Dave Donaldson & Ivana Komunjer, 2012. "What Goods Do Countries Trade? A Quantitative Exploration of Ricardo's Ideas," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(2), pages 581-608.
    15. Bent Dalum & Keld Laursen & Gert Villumsen, 1998. "Structural Change in OECD Export Specialisation Patterns: de-specialisation and 'stickiness'," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 423-443.
    16. Sahoo, Pravakar & Dash, Ranjan Kumar, 2014. "India's surge in modern services exports: Empirics for policy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 1082-1100.
    17. Yanrui Wu, 2007. "Service Sector Growth in China and India: A Comparison," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 07-04, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    18. Keld Laursen, 2015. "Revealed comparative advantage and the alternatives as measures of international specialization," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 5(1), pages 99-115, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Narayan, Seema & Bhattacharya, Poulomi, 2019. "Relative export competitiveness of agricultural commodities and its determinants: Some evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 29-47.
    2. Barman, Hemanta & Dutta, Mrinal Kanti & Nath, Hiranya K., 2018. "The telecommunications divide among Indian states," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(7), pages 530-551.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nath, Hiranya K. & Liu, Lirong & Tochkov, Kiril, 2015. "Comparative advantages in U.S. bilateral services trade with China and India," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 79-92.
    2. Binoy Goswami & Hiranya K. Nath, 2021. "India'S Revealed Comparative Advantages In Merchandise Trade With Country Groups At Different Levels Of Development," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(2), pages 377-397, April.
    3. Gordeev, Roman, 2020. "Comparative advantages of Russian forest products on the global market," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    4. Nestor Gandelman & Osiris J. Parcero & Matilde Pereira & Flavia Roldán, 2021. "Ventajas comparativas reveladas en disciplinas científicas y tecnológicas en Uruguay," Documentos de Investigación 125, Universidad ORT Uruguay. Facultad de Administración y Ciencias Sociales.
    5. Jenny P. Danna-Buitrago & Rémi Stellian, 2022. "A New Class of Revealed Comparative Advantage Indexes," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 477-503, July.
    6. Liu, Bin & Gao, Jianbo, 2019. "Understanding the non-Gaussian distribution of revealed comparative advantage index and its alternatives," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 1-11.
    7. Amador, João & Cabral, Sónia & Ramos Maria, José, 2007. "International Trade Patterns over the Last Four Decades: How does Portugal Compare with other Cohesion Countries?," MPRA Paper 5996, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Richa Khurana & D. K. Nauriyal, 2017. "Dynamics of Services Exports in India," Millennial Asia, , vol. 8(2), pages 178-193, October.
    9. Martin Grančay & Tomáš Dudáš, 2019. "Bilateral trade flows and comparative advantage: does the size matter?," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 41(4), pages 397-413, December.
    10. João Amador & Sónia Cabral & José Maria, 2011. "A Simple Cross-Country Index of Trade Specialization," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 447-461, July.
    11. Falkowski Krzysztof, 2017. "Long-Term Comparative Advantages of the Eurasian Economic Union Member States in International Trade," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 53(4), pages 27-49, December.
    12. Martin Grančay & Tomáš Dudáš & Ladislav Mura, 2022. "Revealed comparative advantages in academic publishing of “old” and “new” European Union Member States 1998–2018," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(3), pages 1247-1271, March.
    13. Danna-Buitrago, Jenny Paola & Stellian, Rémi, 2022. "Which revealed comparative advantage index to choose? Theoretical and empirical considerations," Revista CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), December.
    14. Junshi Li & Yao Pan, 2023. "EU and China’s comparative advantage, trade complementarity and trade specialization dynamics in agricultural products," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 351-379, September.
    15. Ronen, Eyal & Benizri, Yohan, 2018. "Export Competitiveness and Trade Agreements: Analysis and Insights from Israel’s Experience," MPRA Paper 84945, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Chen‐Ti Chen & John M. Crespi & William Hahn & Lee L. Schulz & Fawzi Taha, 2020. "Long‐run impacts of trade shocks and export competitiveness: Evidence from the U.S. BSE event," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(6), pages 941-958, November.
    17. Abhijit Sharma & Michael Dietrich, 2004. "The Indian Economy Since Liberalisation: the Structure and Composition of Exports and Industrial Transformation (1980 – 2000)," Working Papers 2004004, The University of Sheffield, Department of Economics, revised May 2004.
    18. Shinoj, P. & Mathur, V.C., 2008. "Comparative Advantage of India in Agricultural Exports vis-a-vis Asia: A Post-reforms Analysis," Agricultural Economics Research Review, Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), vol. 21(1).
    19. Kaveri Deb & Bodhisattva Sengupta, 2017. "On Empirical Distribution of RCA Indices," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 6(1), pages 23-41, January.
    20. Elsa Leromain & Gianluca Orefice, 2014. "New revealed comparative advantage index: Dataset and empirical distribution," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 139, pages 48-70.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:eurase:v:8:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s40822-018-0098-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.