Competitiveness and External Trade Performance of the French Manufacturing Industry

Pierre-Richard Agénor

No 1995/137, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: This paper provides an assessment of competitiveness and external trade performance of the French manufacturing industry during the 1980s and early 1990s. The first part of the paper reviews developments in a broad range of competitiveness indicators. The analysis indicates that the manufacturing sector appears to have maintained its competitive position in recent years. The second part discusses developments in export market shares. The third part estimates a vector error correction model relating the trade ratio to relative unit labor costs, domestic and foreign demand, and nonprice competitiveness. Variance decompositions suggest that fluctuations in price and nonprice competitiveness account for about two-fifths of fluctuations in manufacturing trade flows.

Keywords: WP; price competitiveness; trade ratio; competitiveness index; trade performance; labor cost; competitiveness indicator; cost competitiveness matter; import penetration; Competition; Labor costs; Exports; Manufacturing; Export performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42
Date: 1995-12-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Journal Article: Competitiveness and external trade performance of the French manufacturing industry (1997)
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