Country Classification: North, Emerging South and Rest of South

The CEPII BACI dataset is available for 1995–2009 and includes bilateral trade data (both values and quantities) for 231 countries consisting of 23 in the North, 55 in the Emerging South, 154 in the Rest of South. The IMF Direction of Trade Statistics for 1948–2013, on the other hand, includes bilateral merchandise trade data (only trade values) for 223 countries. The data from the IMF are adjusted for mirror data. Depending on data availability and length-of-time series data, we corrected the export data using the import data of trading partners after adjusting for an average 5 percent cif/fob correction. For consistency, when using the mirror data from importing trade partners, we replaced the data for all years for country i rather than simply filling in missing years.

The North refers to the following countries: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States. The Emerging South includes: Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela and Vietnam. All other countries are classified as the Rest of South.

Product Classification

The product classifications are based on the following three-digit product codes using SITC Rev2.

High-skill manufactures: 716, 718, 751, 752, 759, 761, 764, 771, 774, 776, 778, 524, 541, 712, 792, 871, 874, 881.

Medium-skill manufactures: 781, 782, 783, 784, 785, 266, 267, 512, 513, 533, 553, 554, 562, 572, 582, 583, 584, 585, 591, 598, 653, 671, 672, 678, 786, 791, 882, 711, 713, 714, 721, 722, 723, 724, 725, 726, 727, 728, 736, 737, 741, 742, 743, 744, 745, 749, 762, 763, 772, 773, 775, 793, 812, 872, 873, 884, 885, 951.