TY - JOUR
T1 - Skills and changing comparative advantage
T2 - The case of Japan
AU - Kiyota, Kozo
N1 - Funding Information:
I wish to thank Antonio Accetturo, Fukunari Kimura, Kozo Miyagawa, Donghyun Park, Eric Ramstetter, Shujiro Urata, and participants at the third international workshop on the economics of global interactions at the University of Bari and the 13th International Convention of the East Asian Economic Association. This paper also benefited significantly from the comments of an anonymous referee. Financial support received from the JSPS Grant-in-Aid (for Young Scientists and A-22243023 ) is gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimers apply.
PY - 2013/12
Y1 - 2013/12
N2 - Is the skill gap of net exports widening? This question is nontrivial for many industrial countries because, with the rapid growth of emerging countries, human capital is considered one of the most important sources of comparative advantage. Theoretically, however, the answer is not necessarily obvious because of changing comparative advantage. This paper attempts to answer this question by extending the analysis of Wolff (2003) and by focusing on one of the largest OECD countries, Japan, for the period 1980-2005. The results indicate that the answer to the above question may well be "no." Although Japan is still a net exporter of skill-intensive goods, the skill gap of net exports has been narrowing since the mid-1990s, mainly as a result of the changes in the composition of trade. This implies that some OECD countries, including Japan, may have been losing their comparative advantage in skill-intensive goods in recent years.
AB - Is the skill gap of net exports widening? This question is nontrivial for many industrial countries because, with the rapid growth of emerging countries, human capital is considered one of the most important sources of comparative advantage. Theoretically, however, the answer is not necessarily obvious because of changing comparative advantage. This paper attempts to answer this question by extending the analysis of Wolff (2003) and by focusing on one of the largest OECD countries, Japan, for the period 1980-2005. The results indicate that the answer to the above question may well be "no." Although Japan is still a net exporter of skill-intensive goods, the skill gap of net exports has been narrowing since the mid-1990s, mainly as a result of the changes in the composition of trade. This implies that some OECD countries, including Japan, may have been losing their comparative advantage in skill-intensive goods in recent years.
KW - Comparative advantage
KW - Factor content of trade
KW - Japan
KW - Skills
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84880821669&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84880821669&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.japwor.2013.06.004
DO - 10.1016/j.japwor.2013.06.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84880821669
SN - 0922-1425
VL - 28
SP - 33
EP - 40
JO - Japan and the World Economy
JF - Japan and the World Economy
ER -