Evaluating global competitiveness, specialization, and market structure of the apparel sector: a study on BIMSTEC member nations

Indrajit Singha, Debasis Neogi, Partha Acharjee, Anand Kumar Singh

Abstract


Relevance. While research literature has largely focused on country-level trade competitiveness or global apparel leaders, comparative analysis within the BIMSTEC region remains limited. This study contributes to the literature by applying multiple trade indices and advanced statistical techniques to evaluate the apparel trade potential of BIMSTEC member countries.

Research objective. The study aims to assess trade competitiveness, specialization, and market concentration of knitted and non-knitted apparel products, and to examine whether significant differences exist in trade performance across BIMSTEC nations.

Data and methods. The study relies on country-level trade data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) database covering the period 2005–2023. It applies Balassa Index, Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA), Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), Lafay Index, and Market Concentration Index (MCI). In addition, Welch’s ANOVA and the Games-Howell post hoc test are employed to analyze statistical differences among countries.

Results. Bangladesh emerges as the top-performing country, followed by India, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar across both product categories. Sri Lanka (in knitted products) and Myanmar (in non-knitted products) are relatively stronger performers within BIMSTEC. In contrast, Thailand and Nepal exhibit weaker performance, while Bhutan consistently records the lowest trade performance across both product groups. The Welch ANOVA results confirm statistically significant differences among countries for all selected indices, and the post hoc analysis reveals heterogeneous pairwise differences.

Conclusions. The study provides a comprehensive assessment of apparel trade performance in BIMSTEC countries and offers policy-relevant insights for strengthening regional trade integration and competitiveness in the apparel sector.


Keywords


Apparel sector, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), trade specialization, market concentration, trade performance

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.15826/recon.2026.12.2.013

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