Dynamic Changes of China’s Export Specialization

This paper analyzes the dynamic changes of China’s export specialization during the period of 1987-2011. China’s exports have increased rapidly from 1.60 percent of the world market in 1987 to 10.31 percent in 2011. China’s export specialization has changed from labor-intensive goods to capital-intensive goods, and especially, has moved from low technology industries to high technology industries. The regression results show that even with the de-specialization pattern evident in all countries, China’s de-specialization tendency is stronger than that of advanced countries. This de-specialization can be attributed to China’s intra-industry trade and the quality improvement of China’s exporting goods.