Title: Revealed Comparative Advantage and Agricultural Land Productivity in China

Speaker: Li Jie, Vice Dean of the Institute of Industrial Economics, Jinan University; Distinguished Talent Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Jinan University; Chief Expert of the Major Project of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education; Associate Editor of the well-known international economics SSCI journal Review of International Economics; Executive Editor of Industrial Economics Review (a CSSCI expanded source journal). His main research fields are international trade, industrial economics and corporate finance. In recent years, he has published more than 40 papers in international renowned SSCI journals such as EER, JEBO, JCE and JIMF, and nearly 30 papers in domestic authoritative journals such as Economic Research Journal, China Economic Quarterly, World Economy, China Industrial Economics and Journal of Management Sciences.

Abstract: This paper measures the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) of regions in China for specific crops and uses crop-specific productivity gaps to explore their relevance for the RCA. We document that China’s region-specific RCA is negatively related to crop-specific productivity gaps. Interestingly, the sensitivity of export sales to a technology gap is less pronounced than that of total sales. We illustrate how China’s regional heterogeneity in terms of RCA changes in response to three alternative shocks: a hypothetical catching up to the Chinese (or global) productivity frontier per crop; China’s WTO accession; and a hypothetical elimination of China’s export-rebate policy.

Date & time: 28 April 2025, 09:00

Venue: B423, Zhixin Building, Central Campus, Shandong University