The method of constant market shares analysis reconsidered

Abstract
Constant market shares (CMS) analyse are frequently used in applied studies of export development. This paper reviews the development of the method and argues that it can be considerably improved. A new version of the method is developed which, in addition to the familiar CMS effects, also allows for the calculation of effects reflecting the ability of each country to adapt its export structure to the changes in the commodity and country composition of world imports. The method is applied to a sample of 20 OECD countries for the period 1961–83.