Are the Emerging Economies a Threat to the Italian Competitiveness?

Abstract:     
This work deals with the issue of the Italy’s competitiveness vis-à-vis the trade dynamism and performance of the new emerging Southern economies: China, India, Brazil, and South Africa (CIBS). Having examined the trade patterns, main competitors and trade specialization of the countries analyzed, we go on to perform Cluster Analysis to capture the entire set of trade complementarities and specializations of the global trading system. The empirical results contribute to partially mitigating the pessimistic view that sees evolution in the emerging economies’ trade specialization as a potential threat to our country, with the significant exception of China.

Keywords: Emerging economies, Italy, Trade patterns, Trade specialization, Cluster analysis

JEL Classification: F10, F14, C38, O57

Accepted Paper Series