Rischi dell'integrazione commerciale cinese per il modello di specializzazione internazionale dell'Italia

The increasing outward orientation of the Chinese economy — specialized in the same sectors included in the "Made in Italy" — has raised worries on the future of Italy's international specialization. This paper analyses OECD imports from Italy, France, Spain and China and shows that the Chinese specialization pattern is indeed similar to the Italian one at a sectoral level, but for several products there is no real competitive pressure from Chinese goods, Italian goods being qualitatively better than the Chinese. However, between 1991 and 2002 not only did competitive pressures rise, but also the percentage of trade flows where Italian goods are of a higher quality level decreased, with the exception of some traditional sectors.