Trends in Italy’s Nonprice Competitiveness / Bogdan Lissovolik.

Format:

Book

Government document

Author/Creator:

Lissovolik, Bogdan.

Series:

IMF Working Papers; Working Paper ; No. 2008/124

IMF Working Papers

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (36 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : International Monetary Fund, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Italy's medium-term economic performance has raised "standard" competitiveness concerns as unit labor costs surged, and real export growth fell. But the recent economic upturn, low current account deficit, and robust nominal exports argue for less pessimism. An empirical analysis confirms the standard concerns, but also suggests that "residual" factors, which partly reflect nonprice economic restructuring, have supported Italy's real exports after 2005 (as in Germany but less so in France or Spain). An investigation of selected structural trends over the past decade offers some substantiation to Italy's "restructuring story," including quality upgrading, geographical trade diversification, and outsourcing. But sluggish services, low FDI, and modest "technological" upgrading indicate limits to Italy's restructuring.

Contents:

Contents; I. Introduction; II. Italy's Stylized Competitiveness Dilemma: Volumes Versus Values; A. Sluggish Export Volumes; Figures; 1. Large Euro Countries: Average Real Export Growth, 2001-06; 2. Unit Labor-Cost-Based REERs and Real Exports in Italy, France, Spain, and Germany; 3. Real Effective Exchange Rates Based on ULCs and CPI; B. Buoyant (Unit) Values; 4. Italy's Export Indicators; III. What "Standard" Trade Competitiveness Indicators Can (not) Explain?; A. Rationale; B. Data and Methodology; C. Results; Tables; 1. Determinants of Real Exports in Large Euro Area Countries

5. Italy: Recursive Estimates of the REER and Export Demand Elasticities6. Real Export Growth, 1996:Q2-2007:Q3; 7. Italy: Actual, Fitted, and Forecast Real Goods Export Growth, 2005-07; 8. Italy: Actual and Forecast Real Goods Import Growth, 2004-07; 2. Selected Time Series Results for Italy; IV. How Italy Might Be Gaining Competitiveness Not (yet) Captured by Standard Price-Based Indicators; 9. Exports to 43 Dynamic Economies as Percent of Own Exports, 2000-05; 10. Unit Value Ratios Relative to the Rest of the World; 11. To What Extent SEA-5 Countries Have Experienced Technology Upgrading?

12. Services Exports13. Italy's Services; 14. FDI Inflows; V. Selected Italy-Specific Aspects of Goods Export Competitiveness; 3. Sectoral Specialization and Subsequent Growth; 4. Top Competitors; 5. Correlation Coefficients: SITC-3-Digit Sectors; 15. Market Concentration, 1995-2005; 16. Gaps with Fast Growers' World Import Share Gains, 2000-05; 17. Lagging Export Growth to Fast Growers, 2000-05; 18. Manufacturing Exports in SEA-5 and Germany, 1995-2005; 19. Large Euro Area Countries: Employment and Value-Added, 2000-05; 20. Italy: Employment Growth in Traditional Manufacturing

VI. Concluding Remarks21. Market Concentration and Relative Unit Value, 1995 and 2004; 22. Contributions to Changes in Relative Unit Values, 1995 and 2004; Appendix; I. Data and Methodology for Time Series Empirical Results of Chapter III; References

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9786612840784

9781462320486

1462320481

9781452721842

145272184X

9781451869842

1451869843

9781282840782

1282840789

OCLC:

815738044