The Growth and Significance of Intra-Industry Trade

Empirical evidence suggests that a significant proportion of trade (in particular, but not exclusively) in manufactures, in particular (but again not exclusively) between industrialised countries, is now intra-industry in nature. The focus of this conference is on causes of changes in the structure of trade during the period 1960-85. There is an obvious rationale therefore for considering the significance of intra-industry specialisation in the changing structure of world trade, how we might explain the occurrence and growth of this phenomenon, and its policy implications. This is the aim of our chapter.