World Rankings of Comparative Advantage in Service Exports

World service exports have grown at a rapid rate over the past few decades. While some countries have benefited from the surge in service exports, others have been left behind. This paper provides a snapshot of the current state of trade in services using three measures of the Balassa index to reveal comparative advantage, both by country and by service sector. Ranking tables are reported for countries with a GDP above $100 billion in 2005, although 147 countries are included in the analysis. (The full results are provided in the appendix). An overview of the performance of G8 and O5 countries is also provided.

F14

services trade, RCA, competitive advantage, Balassa index, developing countries