Determinants of Intra-Industry Trade between East and West Europe

Abstract:     
There is a good deal of intra-industry trade between nations in Central and Eastern Europe and the European Union. Most of it is vertical (the exchange of similar goods of different quality).

Eastern European nations and the European Union (EU) is among the highest of all the EU's bilateral trade flows.

Aturupane, Djankov, and Hoekman break down data on these trade flows into horizontal and vertical components and investigate the determinants of each.

They find that vertical intra-industry trade (the exchange of similar goods of different quality) accounts for 80 to 90 percent of total intra-industry trade. It is positively associated with product differentiation, labor intensity of production, economies of scale, and foreign direct investment.

Controlling for country effects, they find a statistically significant positive association between horizontal intra-industry trade (the exchange of close substitutes of similar quality) and foreign direct investment, product differentiation, and industry concentration. They find a significant negative relationship for economies of scale and labor intensity.

These results do not hold if they do not control for country effects, suggesting that country-specific factors are key determinants of horizontal intra-industry trade.

This paper - a product of the Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to analyze the role of trade and foreign investment in the process of transition in Eastern Europe.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 32

JEL Classification: F13

working papers series