Product and Geographical Concentrations of Exports: Some Evidence for Selected Asian Countries

Diversification of exports involving products and trading partners is an important issue for all countries including developing countries. Over-concentration of exports in a few products and to a few destination countries poses higher risks. The main objective of this paper is to quantify the degree of product and geographical concentrations of exports for selected Asian countries: Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, China, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The paper uses the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to measure product and geographical concentrations of exports. The paper finds that product concentration of exports is highest for Bangladesh and lowest for China. The paper highlights that geographical concentration is highest for Cambodia and lowest for China. The paper observes that all the seven countries have a trade surplus with the USA. Furthermore, Cambodia and Vietnam are more dependent on the US market compared to the other countries. Finally, the paper highlights that exports of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the USA are dominated by knitted and non-knitted apparel.