Export specialization of India with top five agricultural economies: An application of RCA and RSCA

Abstract

The paper attempts to determine Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) and Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) of Indian agriculture sector with respect to top five agriculture exporting countries viz; USA, UK, UAE, Singapore and China. The study evaluates the structure of comparative advantage from 1995-2017. Data as per the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC-1) is used to compute RCA and RSCA index. The indices reveals the comparative advantage in case of majority of commodities like fish, fish preparations, fruits, vegetables, sugar, sugar preparations, miscellaneous food products, wood, lumber and cork. Increasing world demand for exports trailed by the competitiveness of Indian exports has played an important role in export performance.