Abstract: This study analyses the comparative advantage and the pattern of trade flows of Bangladeshi leather industry with comparison to other selected Asian countries- Pakistan, China and India.This research adopted well recognized measure of Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) –Balassa's Index. Bangladesh categorizes its overall leather export into two categories, i.e., I. Raw hides & skins, and II. Leather & leather products. An in-depth RCA has been conducted for these two categories followed by an analysis of overall industry. The analysis shows that Bangladesh has a comparatively high RCA in overall leather exportswith other selected countries from 2004 to 2013 which is driven by a very high RCA in raw hides & skins exports. This indicates that Bangladesh has significant potentiality for specialization in leather export especially raw hides & skins. Therefore, entrepreneurs and policy makers should specialize in raw hides and skins productions and exports to generate more export revenues for the country.
Keywords: Balassa's Index, Bangladesh, Leather Industry, Leather& leather products, Raw hides & skins, Revealed Comparative Advantage
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