REVEALED COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE AND COMPETITIVENESS: EVIDENCE FOR MACEDONIA VIS-À-VIS THE EUROPEAN UNION

Kostoska, Olivera and Hristoski, Ilija (2017) REVEALED COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE AND COMPETITIVENESS: EVIDENCE FOR MACEDONIA VIS-À-VIS THE EUROPEAN UNION. In: Proc. of the 5th International Scientific Conference "Economy of Integration" (ICEI 2017). University of Tuzla, Faculty of Economics, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, pp. 856-871.

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Abstract

Trade integration is an essential component of Macedonia’s economic development
and the role of the European Union (EU) in supporting such process is crucial,
given the importance of the EU member states for the country’s foreign trade. The
EU has encouraged this deepening through an active trade policy, including the
Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) that provides for the creation of a
free trade area between the Union and Macedonia. The latter was granted candidate
status for EU membership in 2005. The relative competitiveness will therefore play
a key role in determining changes in trade patterns and flows between the country
and the member states. There is no doubt that the candidate countries will not be
able to exploit the benefits of integration unless they have products and companies
to withstand the market competition. Hence, the external competitiveness per se has
become a more salient issue than ever before, while improving competitiveness is
important in terms of EU accession.
This paper aims to discover whether Macedonia is in the process of extending the
products in which it has trade potentials, as opposed to a situation in which the
number of products that can be competitively exported is static. More specifically, it
examines the sectoral specialization and competitiveness of the country, in relation
to that of the EU/28, using four indices of revealed comparative advantage over the
years 2000-2015. The statistical findings (mean and coefficient of variation) for the four indices
indicate that comparative advantage are mainly achieved in primary products and
few manufactures, which corresponds to the level of economic development, the
availability of natural resources and the price of production factors (labour). In other
words, change in the composition of exports remain slow, with limited progress towards
higher value added products over the last few years.

Item Type: Book Section
Subjects: Scientific Fields (Frascati) > Social Sciences > Economics and Business
Divisions: Faculty of Economics
Depositing User: Mr Dimitar Risteski
Date Deposited: 24 Sep 2019 09:34
Last Modified: 24 Sep 2019 09:34
URI: https://eprints.uklo.edu.mk/id/eprint/1953

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