Research Areas

The objective of this research has been to analyze the recent patterns of trade and international specialization in the context of the macroeconomic performance of different countries and regions over the past twenty-five years leading up to the Great Recession. The study assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the positioning of a number of relevant countries in international markets for goods, paying special attention to the Spanish case.

The following aspects were also examined: the evolution of the aggregate figures of economic development and international trade in the examined period; the bilateral trade flows between regions and countries, their evolution and their potential impact on the growth of exports of the different economies; the international specialization of countries at different levels of disaggregation; the level of sophistication of global trade and the selected economies, and the potential for future growth according to their specialization and the markets in which they trade.