Export Value Added Database

The Export Value Added Database provides information on the domestic value-added content of domestic output and exports for 118 countries across 27 sectors of the economy, including 9 commercial services sectors, 3 primary sectors, and 14 manufacturing sectors, spanning intermittent years between 1997 and 2011.Trade data is usually measured at transaction values, which are gross values, or value added plus domestic and foreign intermediate inputs. The measure of gross exports may undervalue (overvalue) the real contribution of a sector to trade if value added from this sector is embedded as inputs in other sectors™ exports (or overvalue if exports embed other sector™s value added inputs). This is particularly true for services (or manufacturing) exports. Measuring trade on a value-added basis, as achieved in the Export Value Added Database, overcomes this shortcoming. Thus this alternative measure to trade makes explicit the direct value-added contribution of a sector to domestic production as well as exports, as well as the linkages that the sector provides to all other sectors of the economy in terms of value added. This includes both forward linkages-the contribution of a particular sector as an input to others sectors™ exports-and backward linkages- the contribution of all other sectors to a particular sector™s exports.