Suchergebnisse

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the evolution of Russia's position in the world trade system, especially in relation to the European Union (EU). Data show that after entering into the WTO, Russia did not use this accession to develop and diversify trade flows (like China did, for example) but it augmented its specialization in fuels and raw materials, increasing its dependency on the rest of the world, and especially on European demand. Russia did not exploit its trade potential and its favorable geographic position to foster its economic development and to improve the welfare of its population. At the same time, the integration within the European Single Market and with the rest of the world both for older and new EU member formerly linked to the Soviet Union, has helped the EU to maintain high standards of living, and a relative stability, even if increasing its dependency on Russian fuels. We argue that it is also because of these differences and the related economic problems that tensions between Russia and the EU grew over time.

SummaryWe assess the impact of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) on the structure of world trade by looking for communities in the world trade network (WTN), and allowing the presence of preferential trade patterns to emerge endogenously. The finding of significant communities (as defined in the topology of the networks) would imply that trading countries are organized in groups of preferential partners. We use different approaches to analyze communities in the WTN between 1962 and 2008, but all methods agree in finding no evidence of a significant partition, supporting the view that the existing PTAs are not strongly distorting the geography of trade patterns, at least at the aggregate level.

AbstractIn this paper, we look at the role of export composition in the growth process, considering how increased similarity in trade structure among countries can induce catching‐up in income levels in a group of countries in transition. We analyze the sectoral export patterns of the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) by comparing them to those of the current members of the European Union (EU), focusing on countries' specialization as suppliers for the EU market, and we assess whether similar export patterns foster the catching‐up process of the CEECs. Our main result is that similarity in export composition has a positive, significant and non‐linear impact on catching‐up, and seems to be driven by the growth of the main export market and delocalization of production more than by other factors.