A Comparative Analysis of Competitive Trade in a Cluster Market of the European Union: The Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) Index

ABSTRACT

Ta raziskava obravnava primerjalno analizo konkurenčne trgovine znotraj grozdov tržnih gospodarstev Evropske unije. Cilj tega članka je izvedba trgovinske analize znotraj konkurenčnih držav na evropskem trgu od leta 2009 do 2018. To je obdobje po svetovni krizi leta 2008 in pred pandemijo covida-19 leta 2019, namen analize pa je določiti obseg konkurenčne trgovine znotraj evropskih gospodarstev. Izbrana metrika je indeks razkritih primerjalnih prednosti (RCA) Béle Balasse, ki se uporablja za določanje primerjalne prednosti ali slabosti trgovanja različnih držav. Ugotovitve kažejo, da države z RCA > 1 v primerjavi z drugimi konkurenčními gospodarstvi na nižji ravni gospodarsko uspevajo. In dejstvo je, da gospodarstvo Evropske unije uspeva z mehaniziranim trgovanjem, ki ne zajema kmetijskih proizvodov, ne glede na konkurenčni trg. Studija je pomemben prispevek k izboljšanju Ricardovega modela primerjalnih prednosti na skupnem trgu evropskih gospodarstev.AlternateThis research is concerned with the comparative analysis of competitive trade within the cluster market economies of the European Union. The aim of this paper is to carry out trade analysis within the competing countries in the European market from 2009 to 2018 which represents the period after the global crisis of 2008 and prior to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2019 for the purpose of determining the extent of competitive trade within the European economies. The chosen metric is Béla Balassa's Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index used for determining various countries' comparative advantage or disadvantage in trade. The findings show that the countries with RCA > 1 thrive economically in comparison to other competing lower economies. And the fact that the European Union economy thrives on mechanized trade other than agricultural products irrespective of the competitive market. This study is a significant contribution towards improving the Ricardian model of comparative advantage on trade within a cluster market in the European economies.