Competitiveness of Latvia's exporters

Abstract

This paper evaluates the competitiveness of Latvia's exporters from various aspects by using detailed trade data from UN Comtrade. Competitiveness represented by the market share of Latvia's products in world trade was on a rising trend, growing almost two times between 1999 and 2010. This dynamic improvement was mainly accounted for by intensive margin, as Latvia's exporters increased their presence on traditional markets. Moreover, the contribution of extensive margin was also positive due to geographical expansion. Analysis of non-price competitiveness signals that although Latvia's export unit values were increasing faster than those of its main competitors, relative quality and taste for Latvia's products were rising even faster, and, overall, the competitiveness of Latvia's exporters improved.