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Tanzania’s Revealed Comparative Advantage and Structural Transformation

Botswana Journal of Economics

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Title Tanzania’s Revealed Comparative Advantage and Structural Transformation
 
Creator Mkenda, BK
 
Subject Comparative advantage; revealed comparative advantage, Tanzania, structural transformation
 
Description This study examines Tanzania’s structural transformation by using the revealed comparative approach using export data for 2001, 2002 and 2011, at the second level of the Harmonised System (HS). Using global data, the study finds that for 2002 and 2011, agricultural products, fish and minerals have comparative advantage over other product groups. For the periods 2001 and 2011 for which Tanzanian data is used, these results are further corroborated; agricultural products dominate Tanzania’s  comparative advantage for both years, although minerals assume the first rank in 2011. Specifically, 70% of the product groups are agricultural, withthe rest being mineral products. These findings suggest that no structural transformation has occurred in the Tanzanian economy over the last decade, and this is supported by the Spearman’s Rank Correlation  coefficient calculated using the country data. The policy implication is that since Tanzania reveals strong comparative advantage in agriculture andmineral products, it is important to add value to these products for higher export earnings. This means ensuring that products from agriculture,  mining and fishery sectors are locally processed to meet international  standards. Local processing will also ensure that the much needed jobs are created in the country.Key words: Comparative advantage; revealed comparative advantage, Tanzania, structural transformation
 
Publisher The Botswana Economics Association
 
Contributor
 
Date 2014-11-19
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article
 
Format application/pdf
 
Identifier https://www.ajol.info/index.php/boje/article/view/109941
 
Source Botswana Journal of Economics; Vol 12, No 1 (2014); 59-81
1810-0163
1810-0163
 
Language eng
 
Relation https://www.ajol.info/index.php/boje/article/view/109941/99675
 
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