Integracja handlowa a synchronizacja cykli koniunkturalnych Polski i Unii Europejskiej

Abstract

Analysis of the synchronization of economic fluctuations has become nowadays a key issue in the debate on the process of economic integration. Special interest of economists are related to the issue of the analysis of convergence and divergence processes of business cycles in the European Union. One of the factors determining the convergence of business cycles of economies is the intensity and structure of foreign trade. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of international trade on the synchronization of business cycles between Poland and the European Union in the period 1995-2011. In the study were used a research methods based on literature studies in macroeconomics and international finance and econometric methods (Vector Autoregression Model). The results of empirical studies indicate that the increase in trade does not necessarily lead to increase of business cycles synchronization in analyzed economies. The impact of external trade on the business cycles synchronization depends not only on the intensity of trade, but mainly on the commodity structure of foreign trade.

Keywords

• business cycle
• economic integration
• foreign trade