It is customary in the empirical trade literature to analyze specialization patterns of countries using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) measures. This paper explores the pros and cons of the most commonly used RCA index: the Balassa (1965) Index of RCA. After describing the properties of...

The paper explores the structure of Italian Revealed Comparative Advantages (RCA), focusing on the export structure itself, on its change over time and on its degree of persistence. The analysis is developed with the use of visual statistical tools - such as scatter plots - and nonparametric...

This paper explores the structure of Italian revealed comparative advantages (RCA), focusing on the export structure itself, on its changes over time and on its degree of persistence. The analysis is developed with the use of visual statistical tools and non-parametric statistical techniques...