JT00153477 STI Working Paper SeriesThe Working Paper series of the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry is designed to make available to a wider readership selected studies prepared by staff in the Directorate or by outside consultants working on OECD projects. The papers included in the series cover a broad range of issues, of both a technical and policy-analytical nature, in the areas of work of the DSTI. The Working Papers are generally available only in their original language -English or French -with a summary in the other.Comment on the papers is invited, and should be sent to the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry, OECD, 2 rue André Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France.The opinions expressed in these papers are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries. AbstractComposite indicators are synthetic indices of individual indicators and are increasingly being used to rank countries in various performance and policy areas. Using composites, countries have been compared with regard to their competitiveness, innovative abilities, degree of globalisation and environmental sustainability. Composite indicators are useful in their ability to integrate large amounts of information into easily understood formats and are valued as a communication and political tool. However, the construction of composites suffers from many methodological difficulties, with the result that they can be misleading and easily manipulated. This paper reviews the steps in constructing composite indicators and their inherent weaknesses. A detailed statistical example is given in a case study. The paper also offers suggestions on how to improve the transparency and use of composite indicators for analytical and policy purposes. INDICATEURS COMPOSITES DE PERFORMANCES DES PAYS : EXAMEN CRITIQUE Michael Freudenberg Résumé

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We provide a systematic decomposition of world trade using harmonized bilateral flows at the most available detail (some 5,000 product categories), into three trade types: inter-industry, intra-industry in horizontally and in vertically differentiated products. The analysis is diachronic and considers country pairs such as France-Germany, United States-China, Malaysia-Singapore, or India-Nigeria. We show that the increase in IIT at the world level is due to two-way trade of vertically differentiated products. We find France and Germany having the highest share of IIT in their bilateral trade among all country pairs in the world. In value terms, the most important bilateral IIT is between the United States and Canada. Recently, specialization according to the classical theories of international trade (inter-industry trade), has recovered, due to the increasing participation of emerging economies in world trade

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[fre] Marché unique et développement des échanges Contrairement à la théorie classique du commerce international, la première vague d'intégration européenne ne s'est pas traduite par un développement du commerce inter-branche reflétant une spécialisation accrue des pays . membres dans des produits pour lesquels ils détenaient un avantage comparatif. En revanche, le développement du commerce intra-branche reflète davantage une spécialisation des producteurs eux-mêmes que des différents pays. Il a concerné davantage le commerce croisé de produits : différenciés par leur qualité que le commerce croisé de produits similaires. Ainsi les échanges intra-européens se caractérisent-ils ,; par l'importance d'un commerce croisé faisant une large place aux échanges de qualité. Ces mécanismes se sont accompagnés d'une spécialisation des pays membres; dans telle ou telle gamme de qualité (bas de gamme, gamme moyenne, haut de gamme), cela pour chaque- produit concerné par les échanges. Dans la perspective de cette nouvelle division du travail au sein du Marché unique, l'Espagne et dans une moindre mesure le Portugal; semblent avoir réussi leur intégration aux échanges intracommunautaires,' au contraire de la Grèce. L'intégration plus marquée des pays membres du noyau dur (membres . originels) repose sur des échanges bilatéraux intra-branche, intenses. Les pays du Nord se caractérisent par la place importante des produits haut de gamme dans leurs exportations, et contrastent ainsi avec les pays du Sud spécialisés au contraire dans le bas de gamme. Si dans sa globalité, l'Union européenne est spécialisée dans le haut de gamme, elle ne doit cette performance qu'à quelques-uns de ses membres au premier rang desquels l'Allemagne et la France dont les profils de spécialisation déterminent celui de l'ensemble européen. . [eng] The Single Market and the Development of Contrary to classic international trade theory, the first wave. of European integration has not developed inter-sector- trade derived from increased specialisation by member states in products in which they have a competitive edge. Intra-sector trade, on the other hand, has grown more as . a result of specialisation by the producers themselves than : by the different countries. This growth concerns more.- cross trade in products differentiated by their quality than -. cross trade in similar products. Intra-European trade therefore features a great deal of cross trade with a large proportion of quality trade. These mechanisms go hand in hand with member state specialisation in a given quality range (bottom of the range, middle of the range or top of the range) for each product traded. Spain and Portugal to a lesser extent Trade appear to have successfully, integrated into: intra-community trade from the point of view of this new division of labour in the single market. Greece, however, has not. The greater integration of hard core member states (original members) is based on intense bilateral intra-sector trade. The Northern countries have a large share of top-of-the-range...