Evaluation of foreign trade specialisation and competitiveness of the Slovak economy

Abstract

This paper aims to assess the structure of foreign trade specialisation and the character of trade competitiveness of the Slovak Republic as a member state of the European Union in the period 1999- 2021. We apply an industry specific classification using the concepts of the revealed comparative advantage and the revealed price elasticity. This allows us to evaluate the competitiveness and divide the product groups into price and quality sensitive. The findings confirmed that Slovak production is competitive on the European market in several industries, mainly in automotive production, electronics, and iron and steel, with external competitiveness being based on tradition and low costs resulting in lower prices. The structure of competitive exports changed over the analysed period, and we can note a slight shift from price-to quality-based competitiveness.

Keywords

• trade competitiveness
• trade specialisation
• rca index
• unit value
• revelast method