Assessing the agricultural competitive advantage by the RTA index: a case study in Vietnam

Abstract

This study aims to measure static and dynamic competitive advantages of Vietnam’s agricultural sectors by employing the relative trade advantage index (RTA). The dynamics of RTA indicators are tested in three ways: OLS method, Markov matrix, and trend analysis. The results show that Vietnam, generally, obtains the strong competitive advantages in crop sectors and fishery sectors whilst it incurs the weak competitive advantages in livestock sectors and processed food sectors. The regression model suggests that the country has the convergent pattern in agricultural competitive advantages, the Markov matrix proves the relative stabilities of the RTA values, and the trend analysis indicates that Vietnam obtains the RTA gaining trends in 12 agricultural sectors while it has the RTA losing trends in 28 agricultural sectors