COMPETITIVENESS AND EXTERNAL TRADE PERFORMANCE OF THE FRENCH MANUFACTURING-INDUSTRY

Competitiveness and External Trade Performance of the French Manufactu ring Industry. - This paper evaluates the competitiveness and external trade performance of the French manufacturing industry during the 198 0s and early 1990s. It reviews developments in a broad range of compet itiveness indicators, showing that the manufacturing sector appears to have maintained its competitive position, discusses developments in e xport market shares, and estimates a vector error correction model rel ating the trade ratio to relative unit labor costs, domestic and forei gn demand, and nonprice competitiveness. Variance decompositions sugge st that fluctuations in price and nonprice competitiveness account for about two-fifths of fluctuations in manufacturing trade flows.