Open AccessCan South Africa sustain and diversify its exports?
Author(s) -
Marianne Matthee,
Ernst Idsardi,
Waldo Krugell
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
suid-afrikaanse tydskrif vir ekonomiese en bestuurswetenskappe/south african journal of economic and management sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.277
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 2222-3436
pISSN - 1015-8812
DOI - 10.4102/sajems.v19i2.1324
Subject(s) - diversification (marketing strategy) , endowment , margin (machine learning) , export performance , international trade , resource (disambiguation) , business , comparative advantage , sustainability , revealed comparative advantage , economics , international economics , biology , computer network , ecology , philosophy , epistemology , marketing , machine learning , computer science
The aim of this paper is to examine the diversification of South Africa’s exports over the period 1994 to 2012. A decomposition of export growth shows that exports of non-fuel primary commodities as well as medium-skill and technology-intensive manufactured products increased. The largest decrease was in the export of resource-intensive manufactures. These changes reflect South Africa’s endowment of relatively low levels of physical and human capital. The analysis shows that export products that are further from the country’s comparative advantage, make smaller contributions to growth in the intensive margin. It clearly shows the challenge of sustainably diversifying the export basket