Revealed Comparative Advantage of Bangladeshi Leather Industry with Selected Asian Economies

Abstract

This study analyses the comparative advantage and the pattern of trade flows of Bangladeshi leather industry with comparison to other selected Asian countries- Pakistan, China and India.This research adopted well recognized measure of Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) -Balassa's Index. Bangladesh categorizes its overall leather export into two categories, i.e., I. Raw hides & skins, and II. Leather & leather products. An in-depth RCA has been conducted for these two categories followed by an analysis of overall industry. The analysis shows that Bangladesh has a comparatively high RCA in overall leather exportswith other selected countries from 2004 to 2013 which is driven by a very high RCA in raw hides & skins exports. This indicates that Bangladesh has significant potentiality for specialization in leather export especially raw hides & skins. Therefore, entrepreneurs and policy makers should specialize in raw hides and skins productions and exports to generate more export revenues for the country. Keywords: Balassa's Index, Bangladesh, Leather Industry, Leather& leather products, Raw hides & skins, Revealed Comparative Advantage