Digging deeper into this granular PMT-level decomposition reveals further insights about the PM bundles that new traders engage in. We are interested in exploring whether new entrants extend the universe of Thailand's PM export bundles—exporting an existing product to a new market, exporting a new product to an existing market, or both—or simply compete in an existing PM space. Focusing on the trader level, Table 11 takes the export growth decomposition shown on the left panel of Figure 11 and splits the contribution of new entrants into those that export existing PM bundles and those that export new ones. We find that the majority of the contribution to export growth from new traders has been from existing PMs, particularly in the recent period. During 2011–2015, for example, new entrants with new PMs contributed only 0.2 percentage points to total export growth, much lower than the contribution of 2.2 percentage points from new entrants with existing PMs. This suggests that new entrants tend to choose to compete with incumbents rather than going to untapped markets. Possible explanations include positive externalities from the incumbents that help save entry costs for new entrants or a lack of demand in the markets not currently served by existing traders. Alternatively, the low growth rate of new entrants with new PMs raises a concern over the inability of Thai firms to initiate new products into new markets.10
| 2001–2007 | 2007–2011 | 2011–2015 | 2001–2015 | |
| Aggregate | 59.9 | 79.2 | 75.3 | 69.8 |
| By sector | ||||
| Agricultural products | 72.2 | 69.3 | 72.3 | 71.4 |
| Food | 66.5 | 64.5 | 65.3 | 65.6 |
| Mineral products | 97.6 | 88.1 | 82.8 | 90.7 |
| Chemicals and rubbers | 71.1 | 68.7 | 66.6 | 69.2 |
| Wood and leather products | 81.2 | 105.9 | 90.4 | 90.8 |
| Textiles and wearing apparels | 78.3 | 134.7 | 117.9 | 105.7 |
| Metals and other materials | 71.2 | 86.1 | 75.4 | 76.7 |
| Machinery | 84.2 | 95.2 | 84.6 | 87.5 |
| Transportation | 105.9 | 101.2 | 97.1 | 102.1 |
| Miscellaneous | 89.7 | 113.0 | 103.4 | 100.3 |
| By region | ||||
| ASEAN | 69.9 | 67.1 | 68.2 | 68.6 |
| Australia | 64.0 | 67.0 | 60.1 | 63.7 |
| People's Republic of China | 84.4 | 77.3 | 70.1 | 78.3 |
| East Asia | 71.3 | 69.5 | 67.6 | 69.8 |
| European Union | 59.2 | 64.7 | 63.9 | 62.1 |
| Hong Kong, China | 67.7 | 63.1 | 59.5 | 64.1 |
| India | 80.9 | 76.2 | 65.8 | 75.3 |
| Japan | 51.8 | 86.6 | 75.5 | 68.5 |
| United States | 55.0 | 59.0 | 60.2 | 57.6 |
| Rest of the world | 57.8 | 74.7 | 66.3 | 65.1 |
| 2001–2007 | 2007–2011 | 2011–2015 | 2001–2015 | |
| Aggregate | 59.9 | 79.2 | 75.3 | 69.8 |
| By sector | ||||
| Agricultural products | 72.2 | 69.3 | 72.3 | 71.4 |
| Food | 66.5 | 64.5 | 65.3 | 65.6 |
| Mineral products | 97.6 | 88.1 | 82.8 | 90.7 |
| Chemicals and rubbers | 71.1 | 68.7 | 66.6 | 69.2 |
| Wood and leather products | 81.2 | 105.9 | 90.4 | 90.8 |
| Textiles and wearing apparels | 78.3 | 134.7 | 117.9 | 105.7 |
| Metals and other materials | 71.2 | 86.1 | 75.4 | 76.7 |
| Machinery | 84.2 | 95.2 | 84.6 | 87.5 |
| Transportation | 105.9 | 101.2 | 97.1 | 102.1 |
| Miscellaneous | 89.7 | 113.0 | 103.4 | 100.3 |
| By region | ||||
| ASEAN | 69.9 | 67.1 | 68.2 | 68.6 |
| Australia | 64.0 | 67.0 | 60.1 | 63.7 |
| People's Republic of China | 84.4 | 77.3 | 70.1 | 78.3 |
| East Asia | 71.3 | 69.5 | 67.6 | 69.8 |
| European Union | 59.2 | 64.7 | 63.9 | 62.1 |
| Hong Kong, China | 67.7 | 63.1 | 59.5 | 64.1 |
| India | 80.9 | 76.2 | 65.8 | 75.3 |
| Japan | 51.8 | 86.6 | 75.5 | 68.5 |
| United States | 55.0 | 59.0 | 60.2 | 57.6 |
| Rest of the world | 57.8 | 74.7 | 66.3 | 65.1 |
ASEAN = Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Sources: Thai Customs Department and authors’ calculations.