Persistence vs. mobility in industrial and technological specialisations: evidence from 11 Euro area countries

International audienceThis paper examines the evolution of the patterns of specialisation of 11 Euro area countries in the period 1990-2008, by analysing their comparative and technological advantages. We estimate conditional densities and Markov transition probabilities to examine both the external shape of the distribution of technological and comparative advantages and the intra-distribution dynamics. Our results point out that there is, on average, high persistence of the industrial specialisation patterns of the 11 Euro area countries under scrutiny, confirming a lock-in effect, especially in the case of Italy. Our results for technological specialisation reveal high mobility of technological advantages over the same period, especially for Spain