Homework answers / question archive / IBU5IBE – International Business International Trade Profile: A Historical Perspective Structure of the report Each report should be submitted in Word format, respecting the word count (no less than 2,000 words

IBU5IBE – International Business International Trade Profile: A Historical Perspective Structure of the report Each report should be submitted in Word format, respecting the word count (no less than 2,000 words

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IBU5IBE – International Business

International Trade Profile: A Historical Perspective

Structure of the report

• Each report should be submitted in Word format, respecting the word count (no less than 2,000 words. The word count does not include tables, figures and references).
• The report in should include all required tables and figures, while all computations should be conducted and clearly reported in Excel files.
• Use Times New Roman font, size 12, single line space.
• The report should include the following general sections (subsections with their respective titles and subtitles can be added).
• A title with the following format: “(name of the country assigned to your group)’s International Trade Profile: A Historical Perspective”
• Brief abstract (maximum of 100 words)
• A table of contents
• A table of figures (graphs, diagrams, etc.) and tables
• A brief introduction
• The body of the report (with titles and subtitles of your choice)
• A brief conclusion (Note, you are not required to write recommendations)
• A list of your references (at least five). Please use APA6 https://latrobe.libguides.com/apa6 style for in-text citations and referencing.

General Contents of the Report

In the report you will describe the trade profile of a country, analysing its evolution over time. The main objectives of the report are:

• To construct and apply various indicators that are normally used to describe the patterns of trade integration of a country to the global economy.
• To effectively research and manage trade datasets to conduct quantitative analysis.
• To analyse the trade profile of a country and its evolution using the theories studied during the semester.

Data Sources

• Trade data: To download the trade data go to http://wits.worldbank.org/WITS/WITS//Default-A.aspx?Page=Default (you will need to create an account).
• For detailed instructions on how to download the data please see the file “Data Downloading Guidelines”.

Make sure that the country of your choice has trade data available that starts at least in the 1960’s.

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data in current US$ can be downloaded from: https://data.worldbank.org/

 

 

 

Specific Contents of the Report

Task 1. Describe the evolution of the volume of exports and imports. For this task you will need data aggregated over all products and all partners for the whole period available.

• Generate a table with the time series of the country’s annual total exports and imports, including their annual percentage change, and the country’s annual balance of trade.
• Add to the table the aggregate world exports for each year, as well as its annual percentage change.
• Compute and include in the table the country’s annual export share in world exports, as well as the share annual percentage change.
• Generate a line diagram for the country’s exports share over time. Discuss your findings.

Task 2. Analyse the degree of integration of the country to the world economy. In this point, in addition to the data downloaded in Task 1 you will need to download your country’s annual GDP at current US$.

• Generate a table where you include annual exports, imports, GDP and your country’s openness to trade. Also include in your table the yearly change of your country’s openness to trade. Depict your country’s openness to trade values over time using a line diagram.

Trade openness is computed using the following formula:

• Discuss your findings. Make sure that your analysis includes references to specific political or economic events that may relate to the evolution of your country’s openness to trade. Support your analysis with references to the relevant literature when appropriate.

Task 3. Analyse the pattern of exports specialisation. For this task you will need to download your country’s exports data disaggregated by products (SITC 3-digit level).

Download the data for three years: the earliest year available in your dataset, one year around the centre of your time series (possibly end of the 1980’s or beginning of the 1990’s), and for 2019, or the most recent year in your dataset as long as it is not later than 2019. If you find some missing observations in your dataset that is okay, as long as there is enough data to conduct the analysis just work with what you have.

• In your Excel spread sheet(s) calculate the index of Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) for each product at the SITC 3-digit level using the relevant data. Please keep RCA values to 3 decimal places. The RCA of a product  of country  in year  is given by:

where  is the export value of product  of country  at year . The denominator incorporates aggregated world values (all countries).

• Generate 3 tables where you list the top 10 products by RCA in each of the selected years (one table per year). Each table should include the rank, product ID, product name and the corresponding RCA.

Note: The index represents the share of a particular product’s exports in total exports of a country, relative to the share of that product’s exports in total world exports. A country is said to have an RCA in a product when the corresponding index is greater than 1 ().

 

• Discuss your findings by analysing the patterns and overtime trends of RCA in your country. Explain the sources of the RCAs and the determinants of their change over time (when changes are observed over time). Your discussion should be supported not only by the data analysis but also by research on relevant literature and the theories studied in the subject.

 

Task 4. Analyse the geographical pattern of trade. For this task you will need to download trade data by trade partner.

• Using aggregate exports by trade partner identify and report the top ten export destinations (by export value) of your chosen country. Generate a table where you include the top ten partners in each of the years selected in Task 3. Discuss your findings. Your discussion should be supported not only by the data analysis but also by research on relevant literature and the theories studied in the subject.