Patterns of external insertion in global value chains: a comparative analysis between Brazil and China

ABSTRACT The international trade literature has shown the benefits of the international fragmentation of production for developing countries. However, there are considerations about the hierarchy and control in Global Value Chains (GVCs). Thus, this research aims to evaluate the Brazilian and Chinese international insertion in GVCs by proposing an index about technological sophistication in exports (qtech) by technological intensity for 2005-2015. The results pointed out that the integration in GVCs and technological sophistication have been directed towards technological clusters in which Brazil has revealed comparative advantages, while China has been moving towards technological clusters with dynamic comparative advantages.

Mapowanie produktów polskiego eksportu produktów rolno spożywczych kierowanego do wybranych krajów Unii Europejskiej w 2020 roku

The article focuses on the search for growth prospects for Polish exports of agri-food products with economies belonging to the European Union and being the most important export markets for Poland in terms of agri-food products. Groups of these goods were identified that are characterized by positive and negative indicators of revealed comparative advantages and indicators of the trade balance. The study used a method based on the product mapping matrix.

Export Competitiveness of Agri-Food Sector during the EU Integration Process: Evidence from the Western Balkans

Trade agreements with the European Union (EU) and Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) significantly influenced the liberalisation of agri-food products in Western Balkan (WB) countries. In all Western Balkan countries, there has been an intensification of the trade of agri-food products and a partial change in the regional and commodity structures of trade. This paper aims to identify comparative advantages of agri-food sectors and consider its tendencies during the EU integration process. Additionally, this paper will discuss some opportunities for improvement of the export positions of agri-food products. In that context and based on the literature review, the indexes of revealed comparative advantages and its modified version will be used as a main method for analysis in this research. Results showed that all Western Balkan countries, except Albania, have comparative advantages in exporting agri-food products. It is evident that Serbia has the highest level of comparative advantages in this sector. Moreover, this paper suggests that all countries should aim to provide the best possible positions for their agri-food products during pre-accession negotiations for EU membership and take the necessary steps towards increasing the level of competitiveness in the common EU market.

Research on the Development of Characteristic Tourism Towns in Northern Anhui under Rural Revitalization

Characteristic towns are the continuation and development of the construction of "small towns", and have become an important node of the development of "urban-rural integration". Characteristic tourism town is one of the important models of rural tourism development. It plays an important role in promoting the solution of "Three rural issues", increasing farmers' opportunities for entrepreneurship and employment, improving farmers' income, building a beautiful countryside and finally realizing rural revitalization. The restrictive factors and main problems of the development of characteristic tourism towns in Northern Anhui are: single business model and shallow cultural excavation level. The development foundation is relatively weak, and the industrial products are not closely related. The essence of cultural characteristics is not fully reflected, which needs to be deeply excavated. Through the analysis, the following development ideas and countermeasures of characteristic tourism towns in Northern Anhui are formed: first, give full play to the resources with the most comparative advantages and take the road of characteristic development. Second, make leisure tourism closely related to the characteristic industries and products of small towns. Third, deeply excavate and fully absorb traditional culture, and create a new idea of developing characteristic tourism towns in Northern Anhui with the combination of culture and tourism. Fourth, actively explore the new mode of "Internet plus tourism".

Modeling in marine ice engineering

In the modern world, it is already difficult to imagine the creation of a significant engineering structure without modeling its external and internal appearance, the operation modeling of the main mechanisms, operating conditions and many other design features and emerging phenomena at the design stage. The paper interprets modeling and simulation as one of the computational methods that allow us to obtain quantitative results when studying ice impact on marine structures, for e.g. icebreakers and transport vessels, platform substructures, hydro-technical installations. In connection with the above, from the existing classification of modeling methods, the authors consider the physical and mathematical ones in the work. They present comparative advantages of both methods in their application in the problems of marine ice engineering, as well as the prospects for their development for solving a wide range of scientific problems aimed at the development of Arctic shipbuilding.

Farm Development in Tay Nguyen Economic Region: Specificity of Formation and Development

The development level of businesses and their competitiveness has a significant effect on the growth of an economic region. The improvement in comparative advantage for regional social and economic development will contribute to the strengthening and expanding possibilities for farm owners as well as to encouraging the authorities of the province to pay a special attention to an accelerated farm transformation in the agriculture of Tay Nguyen region. Farm economy development is considered to be an inevitable trend and its effectiveness does not rely too much on laws and market practice but on the understanding of the regional structure taking into account the demands and peculiarities of this economic agent. Using the methods of descriptive statistics and the analysis of secondary data, this paper is devoted to the analysis of the essence of farm economy of Tay Nguyen region. A special place has analysis of the theoretical basis of economic zones and the identification of comparative advantages of the region in farming development. The results of this empirical research aim to discover the specificity of formation and development of farm economy in the Tay Nguyen region nowadays.

Triangular Cooperation: Different Approaches, Same Modality

Triangular cooperation aims to utilise the comparative advantages of a pivotal partner (usually an emerging country) and a facilitating partner (usually a traditional donor) to generate development impacts with and for the benefit of a beneficiary, through simultaneously strengthening their partnership and providing opportunities for mutual learning. Utilising the triangular cooperation modality, China has acted primarily as a pivotal partner, implementing projects with facilitating partners and beneficiaries. Roles and responsibilities between China and facilitating partners differ greatly. Three approaches can be distinguished: (a) facilitating partner provides financial resources and China provides expertise; (b) China provides financial resources and facilitating partner implements; (c) China and facilitating partner provide financial resources and jointly plan and implement together with the beneficiary. This article argues that approach (c), currently practised in triangular cooperation projects between China, Germany, and beneficiary countries provides the partners with the most potential for effectively generating developmental impacts and partnership effects.

A New Class of Revealed Comparative Advantage Indexes

This paper draws upon a critical analysis of the three RCA indexes in Vollrath (1991) to propose a new class of RCA indexes. The baseline RCA index in this new class rests on the overall structure of trade, is symmetric, avoids size bias and is compatible with the Kunimoto-Vollrath principle. Possible modifications of the baseline RCA index are subsequently suggested to take into account GDP per capita data and to use adjusted trade data with the aim of better measuring comparative advantages. These modified versions together with the baseline RCA index give rise to a whole new class of RCA indexes. An application to the Euro area indicates that this new class is able to rank countries according to their respective levels of comparative advantages in a more consistent way than alternative RCA indexes. Furthermore, the new class of RCA indexes provides second-best solutions for time stationarity and the desirable distributional characteristics of an RCA index.

Innovation and investment mechanism for the formation and implementation of state policy to ensure the technological competitiveness of leading countries and Ukraine in the digital economy

The aim of the study is to assess the technological competitiveness of the leading countries and Ukraine as well as the formation of an innovation and investment mechanism to improve it. The article presents the scheme of research of technological competitiveness of the leading countries and Ukraine on the basis of qualitative and economic-statistical analysis, analysis of comparative advantages, grouping method and correlation-regression analysis. Analysis of foreign trade in high-tech products showed that the studied countries occupy more than half of this market. The studied countries take an active part in international economic relations since they have rather high export quotas but the ratio of the export of high-tech goods to GDP is very low. The analysis of comparative advantages showed that Ukraine has the greatest preference for the export of aerospace products, Germany for pharmaceuticals, China for office equipment, the United States for instrument making, and only China for telecommunications. It was determined that France, China, and South Korea have the highest level of innovation in national exports, and Ukraine and the Russian Federation have the lowest.