• Korea Trade Review
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.47-67
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• 2017

This paper analyzes industries of the Daegu-Gyeongbuk province of the Republic of Korea using the product space model that was developed mid 2000s on the basis of a network analysis framework. The study examines the structure of the product space for the 421 export items at HS 4-digit level after grouping them into 4 categories; classics, emerging champions, marginals and the disappearing products. The results suggest a significant structural transformation in the product space for the local industries and the scope and magnitude of such transformation was rather large. We were also able to confirm that the structural transformation of the product space differs from industry to industry and from group to group. While the approach used is not without shortcomings, our findings also indicate that information extracted from the world merchandise trade by way of product space indicators can be quite useful in identifying structural transformation of industries.