Publication: Revealed Comparative Advantage of Pakistan's Agricultural Exports
Date
2010-11
ISSN
Published
2010-11
Author(s)
World Bank
Abstract
Pakistan is widely believed to be
underperforming as far as its agricultural export potential
is concerned. However, analyses to support this allegation
are very few, in part due to the lack of easily accessible
data. In this paper provide the first necessary step in the
analysis of Pakistan's comparative advantage in
agricultural export markets. However, little or no analysis
has been done that sheds some more light on this issue, in
the sense of better specifying in which commodities and
which markets Pakistan's comparative advantage is
strongest. This paper attempts to start filling that void
by quantifying the degree of comparative advantage of
Pakistan agricultural export products in major overseas
markets. This quantification is a necessary first step in
getting a better handle on the factors that may limit the
extent to which Pakistan is able to enter markets where it
has a comparative advantage. Expansion of Pakistan's
share in overseas export markets is crucial for further
development of the country's agricultural sector. The
main objective of the paper is to identify products where
Pakistan has demonstrated comparative advantage, and to
provide a first step towards understanding the factors that
at present limit possibilities for further exploiting that
advantage. The paper analyzes actual export flows and
calculates measures of revealed comparative advantage. The
focus in this paper being on agricultural trade, the
analysis is based on international trade data that
incorporates a unique degree of detail not seen before in
trade analyses for Pakistan.
Citation
“World Bank. 2010. Revealed Comparative Advantage of Pakistan's Agricultural Exports. © Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/02e48629-fdc2-5405-9ac9-7cccda37dd61 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”