THE EVALUATION OF BALKAN COUNTRIES CLOTHING TRADE WITH EU-28 BASED ON THE ANALYSIS OF COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES INDICES

This paper presents an analyses of the trade competitiveness of the clothing sector of Balkans countries’ vis-à-vis the EU-28 using 3 indicators: the Balassa index (RCA), the Vollrath’s revealed competitiveness (VRC), and Lafay Index (LFI), during 2000–2015. All analyzed countries experienced a decrease in their comparative advantage, though it still remained on a high level in the case of Turkey, Macedonia, and Albania in on acceptable level in the case of Romania. We observed weakening comparative advantage stability, underpinned by convergence of revealed comparative advantage pattern.

Keywords:

Competitiveness comparative advantage, clothing industry,

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