The Jordanian Export Performance in Perspective: A Constant-Market-Shares Analysis

Jordan - 19 November 2012

This study uses Constant-Market-Shares (CMS) analysis technique to examine Jordan’s export performance. The recently developed UNIDO method has been applied to Jordan’s merchandise exports during the 1998-2010 period. WITS database has been utilized, covering 150 countries and 96 products at the HS 2-digit level. The results show that the remarkable increase in Jordan’s world export market share was partially caused by the relatively favorable competitiveness effect. The remaining effects of almost all structural static and dynamic factors were positive but some had only a limited influence.  Jordan was more successful in directing its geographic specialization pattern toward those regions with fast growing demand, in comparison with that of commodities. Although Jordan has enjoyed some flexibility and was somewhat dynamically efficient in changing its international specialization pattern in accordance with world import demand, its exports remained concentrated in low and med-high technology sectors.

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