Comparative advantage of textiles and clothing: Evidence for Bangladesh, China, Germany and Turkey

Abstract

In this study, the comparative advantage of four countries in the world: Bangladesh, China, Germany and Turkey is analyzed with respect to the US and the EU-15 textiles and clothing markets by employing Balassa's revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index for the period 2000-2010. This country selection was made because all these countries rank in the top ten textile and clothing exporters in the world and they represent economies from four different income levels. The results have revealed that Bangladesh, China and Turkey have a strong comparative advantage in both the textile and clothing markets of the world, the US and the EU-15, while Germany has no significant comparative advantage in any of these markets. The findings show that the Bangladesh clothing industry has a substantially higher comparative advantage in all three markets compared to the other countries. It has also been found that Turkish textiles show the strongest comparative advantage in all three markets, whereas the comparative advantage of Chinese textiles indicates a slightly increasing trend in all aforementioned markets.