Russian Federation : How Services Contribute to Competitiveness

Saez, Sebastian ; van der Marel, Erik

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: services trade;    export competitiveness;    competitiveness;    globalization;    comparative advantage;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7827
RP-ID  :  WPS7827

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Globalization is creating many new tradeand growth opportunities, with services trade increasinglybecoming an issue for export-oriented economies. Servicesare important to country trade strategies, because theyrepresent activities in which countries may have acomparative advantage, and they are drivers ofcompetitiveness for the whole economy. This paper uses datafrom the World Development Indicators, two new databases(the Export in Value-Added database from the Global TradeAnalysis Project, and Trade in Services data), andfirm-level data. The paper employs a wide range ofindicators to analyze the trade competitiveness of theservices sector in the Russian Federation. Since serviceexports are less than would be expected consideringRussia's level of development, the study finds that thecontribution of services to export diversification could beheightened significantly. The scale of Russian businessservices exports is relatively low, although exports oftraditional services, like transport and travel, areperforming well. Despite the relatively minor importance ofexports of modern services, the category of other businessservices has in recent years been growing fast, and businessservices have strengthened their revealed comparativeadvantages. Yet Russia still has much potential forexpanding trade in modern services. There is also potentialto diversify services exports to other markets, such asFrance, Germany, Japan, and elsewhere in Asia, which todayseems underexploited. Finally, although exports of directservices are low, services such as transport, distribution,finance, and other business services are making majorcontributions to other exports, in particular energy.