Revealed Comparative Advantages and Exports Competitiveness of ASEAN-5 Countries in the Global Market

Abstract

This study aims at measuring the comparative advantage and competitiveness of the ASEAN-5 (Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) economies in the world market. The current study employed four indices of Revealed Comparative Advantage namely Revealed Comparative Advantage index (RCA), LnRCA, Vollrath index (RCA#) and Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage index (RSCA). The data for the analysis has been taken from International trade center UN-COMTRADE statistics for the exports of electrical machinery for these selected economies from 2003-2020. The findings of the analysis portray that Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand had a comparative and competitive advantage, while Indonesia had a comparative and competitive disadvantage in the electrical machinery in the global economy. This study will be helpful for the policy makers to boost human capital formation and to increase technology transfer and innovation to enhance the competitiveness and comparative advantage.