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Vertical intra-industry trade and economic size: The case of Malaysia

ABSTRACT The manufacturing sector has become increasingly important as the engine of growth in the external trade landscape in Malaysia. Meanwhile, most of the manufactured products are involved in intra-industry trade (IIT) and the past studies have documented that vertical intra-industry trade (VIIT) dominates IIT. Thus, using the panel autoregression (VAR) model, this study aims to shed light on the dynamic relationship between VIIT and economic size during 1988–2016 for the case of Malaysia and her top trading partners. The empirical results reveal positive bidirectional causality between VIIT and the economic size of the countries under study. This finding provides evidence that VIIT serves as the new strand of trades lending support to the trade-led growth hypothesis. Therefore, VIIT can act as an engine of growth for Malaysia in the short run. In addition, the findings imply that a shock to VIIT does not create chaos in Malaysia’s economy. On the other hand, a positive shock to Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) increases the VIIT instantly and significantly. Overall, the empirical results suggest that Malaysia’s policy makers should continue to focus on stimulating the growth of VIIT.