The Micro-D Classification: A New Approach to Identifying Differentiated Exports

Juan Hallak, Federico Bernini, Julia Gonzalez (jgonzlz3@illinois.edu) and Alejandro Vicondoa

Economía Journal, 2018, vol. Volume 18 Number 2, issue Spring 2018, 59-85

Abstract: It is common to assess the evolution of a country’s export structure as a manifesta- tion of the extent of progress or stagnation in its development process. Performing this exercise requires determining which features of exported products denote higher stages in that process. We argue that exports of differentiated products, especially when sold to developed countries, signal the acquisition of valuable knowledge that reflects development progress. We propose a new classification, denoted Micro-D, that works at the finest aggregation level in customs nomenclatures to provide a more precise identification of differentiated products. Specifically, the classification uses package size as a proxy for product differentiation to identify differentiated food and beverage exports. Thus, it is especially—though not exclusively—suited to capturing export upgrading in land-abundant developing countries. We apply the Micro-D classification to Argentina in 1998–2011 to deliver a new picture of the country’s sources of export upgrad- ing in this period.

Keywords: Differentiated products; exports; classification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F10 F14 O14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000425:016332

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