A Review of Revealed Comparative Advantage and the Measurement Tools

Abstract

This study scrutinizes literature on the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) in international trade, with a focus on the measurement tools. We note that all the existing RCA indicators suffer from some certain limits, while the efforts to make up these flaws have contributed to the improvement of RCA measurements and facilitated the research on international trade and specialization. Furthermore, we argue that the deficiencies inherent in the multiform RCA indices should be cognized in any relevant empirical studies, which are advised to choose or to devise measurement tools that are most appropriate for the object properties of the research concerned.