Comparative Advantages and Specialisation of the Visegrad Countries Agri-Food Trade

Abstract

The Visegrad Countries (V4) accession to the European Union in 2004 caused several changes in the field of agriculture. The aim of this paper is to analyse impact of the EU enlargement on V4 agri-food trade, especially considering revealed comparative advantages. Results suggest that intensity of the V4 agri-food trade has increased significantly after the enlargement. There was deterioration in the V4 agri-food trade balance with the EU15 in most cases. All analysed countries experienced a decrease in their comparative advantage, though it still remained on acceptable level in most cases. We observed weakening comparative advantage stability, underpinned by convergence of revealed comparative advantage pattern. By estimating the survival function, we found that the enlargement changed survival time of the V4 agri-food trade. Revealed comparative advantage is shown not to be persistent.