Trade Specialization and Export Productivity in OPEC: An Emphasis on Iran’s Position

Abstract

Trade integration with global economy could be evaluated by some well-known trade specialization indicators such as trade dissimilarity, the export centralization, and the inter-industry specialization. Trade specialization pattern has important implications for export productivity. In order to recognize the trade pattern of the members of OPEC, this paper calculates and analyses the patterns of trade specialization and export productivity profiles in these countries, over the period of 1995-2006. The findings indicate that, in spite of trade integration with global economy in OPEC members, these countries have mostly concentrated on the export of less productive product categories.

Keywords

• trade specialization
• export productivity
• opec
• iran