Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Similarity In Trade Structures, Integration And Catching-Up, Luca De Benedictis, Lucia Tajoli

Luca De Benedictis

In 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 …