Competitiveness of Latvia's Exporters

Working Paper 3/2012

Abstract

The paper evaluates competitiveness of Latvia's exporters from various aspects by using detailed trade data from Comtrade. Competitiveness represented by the market share of Latvia's products in world trade was on the rising trend, growing almost two times between 1999 and 2010. Such a dynamic improvement was mainly accounted for by intensive margin, as Latvia's exporters increased their presence on traditional markets. Moreover, the contribution of extensive margin was also positive due to geographical expansion. The analysis of non-price competitiveness signals that although Latvia's export unit values were increasing faster than those of its main rivals, relative quality and taste for Latvia's products were rising even faster, and, overall, competitiveness of Latvia's exporters improved.

Keywords: exports, extensive margin, intensive margin, non-price competitiveness, Latvia

JEL codes: C43, F12, F14, L15

Research published: Competitiveness of Latvia's Exporters. Baltic Journal of Economics, vol.12, No.2, Autumn 2012, pp.17-41. Available: http://www.biceps.org/en/node/526