Assessing the Agricultural Competitive Advantage by the RTA index: A Case Study in Vietnam

Viet Van HoangKhai Tien TranBinh Van Tu

DOI 10.7160/aol.2017.090302
No 3/2017, September
pp. 15-26

Hoang, V. V., Tran, K. T. and Tu, B. V. (2017) “Assessing the Agricultural Competitive Advantageby the RTA index: A Case Study in Vietnam ", AGRIS on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, Vol. 9,No. 3, pp. 15 - 26. ISSN 1804-1930. DOI 10.7160/aol.2017.090302.

Abstract

This study aims to measure static and dynamic competitive advantages of Vietnam’s agricultural sectors by employing the relative trade advantage index (RTA). The dynamics of RTA indicators are tested in three ways: OLS method, Markov matrix, and trend analysis. The results show that Vietnam, generally, obtains the strong competitive advantages in crop sectors and fishery sectors whilst it incurs the weak competitive advantages in livestock sectors and processed food sectors. The regression model suggests that the country has the convergent pattern in agricultural competitive advantages, the Markov matrix proves the relative stabilities of the RTA values, and the trend analysis indicates that Vietnam obtains the RTA gaining trends in 12 agricultural sectors while it has the RTA losing trends in 28 agricultural sectors.

Keywords

Vietnam, agriculture trade, competitive advantage, RTA, dynamics.

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