Abstract:

By computing the export similarity index (ESI) and the weighted export similarity index (WESI), the study measures and analyzes the export similarity and competitive relation between China and ten Asian economies in EU, US, Japan and the world markets. The study finds that China’s export structures are the most similar to Korea and most of China’s ESI shows an increasing trend. An increasing trend of ESI implies that when China has been upgrading and optimizing its production and export structures, emerging developing countries like India and Vietnam are also accelerating their industrial and export sectors development, becoming China’s new competitors. When the scale effect is introduced into the index, the study finds that the WESI of China’s manufacturing products shows a decreasing trend which implies that, from China’s perspective, the degree of export competition between China and ten Asian economies are getting smaller. Moreover, China’s export structure is the most similar to Japan, suggesting the highest degree of competition.

Key words: export similarity index, weighted export similarity index, export structure, export similarity, China and Asia