Export Sophistication Index of Manufacturing Industry in China: A Literature Review

Abstract

The export sophistication index of products has always been the focus of China's export trade and industrial transformation and upgrading. Around the related problems of export sophistication index, several methods of measuring export sophistication index have been developed from different perspectives in existing literature. The author divides them into three categories: product technology level perspective, income level hypothesis perspective and vertical specialization division perspective. In addition, empirical literature finds several factors that affect the export sophistication index, including human capital accumulation, FDI, institutional quality and financial development level. This paper systematically reviews the development of China's export sophistication index, and discusses the existing problems and possible improvements in the future. Finally, this article will point out a few issues that may need to be addressed in the future.