IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/beo/journl/v54y2009i181p55-92.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Structural Characteristics Of World Trade And The Merchandise Exports Of Serbia

Author

Listed:
  • Radovan Kovačević

Abstract

This paper analyses the world merchandise trade structure and the structure of Serbian merchandise exports. The analysis shows that the prominent characteristic of post-World War II world trade is more dynamic growth in the volume of manufactured goods as compared to agricultural goods. Due to the lessening share of agricultural products world merchandise trade has decreased and rapid industrialization has been fostered in developing countries. An increased share for developing countries followed the developed countries’ decreasing share in world manufacturing trade. The developing countries’ increased share was strongest in telecom and office equipment exports. These sectors are characterized by production fragmentation, which is being realized by transnational companies. Serbia, like the other South East European countries, has not yet managed to significantly integrate into international production networks. Serbia’s most important exports are manufactured products with a low level of added value.In addition, Serbia still has a high share of primary products in its exports. A higher share of exports of goods and services in the gross domestic products (GDP) cannot be achieved without increasing imports of new technologies and equipment, i.e. without a higher investment share of the GDP. The main conclusion of this article is that the creation of a favourable investment climate and an increase in Serbia’s international credit rating are the preconditions for stronger foreign direct investment (FDI), which would be the main channel for restructuring in the real sector. Creation of new small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through greenfield investment and their integration into the international production networks is the starting point for the restructuring of Serbian industrial production and merchandise export, i.e. the way of increasing the share of merchandise exports in the GDP.

Suggested Citation

  • Radovan Kovačević, 2009. "The Structural Characteristics Of World Trade And The Merchandise Exports Of Serbia," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 54(181), pages 55-92, April – J.
    • Handle: RePEc:beo:journl:v:54:y:2009:i:181:p:55-92
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ekof.bg.ac.rs/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/181-1-4.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vesna Popović & Branko Katić & Ružica Cvetković, 2008. "Doha Round Of Wto Negotiations And Trade Liberalisation In Serbian Agriculture," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 53(176), pages 61-87, January -.
    2. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2004. "The empirics of agglomeration and trade," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 59, pages 2609-2669, Elsevier.
    3. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/10191 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Thierry Mayer & Gianmarco Ottaviano, 2008. "The Happy Few: The Internationalisation of European Firms," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 43(3), pages 135-148, May.
    5. Marin, Dalia, 2006. "A New International Division of Labour in Europe," CEPR Discussion Papers 5447, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Dalia Marin, 2006. "A New International Division of Labor in Europe: Outsourcing and Offshoring to Eastern Europe," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(2-3), pages 612-622, 04-05.
    7. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/10191 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Robert C. Feenstra & Hiau Looi Kee, 2007. "Trade Liberalisation and Export Variety: A Comparison of Mexico and China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 5-21, January.
    9. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/10147 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Molly Lesher & Sébastien Miroudot, 2008. "FDI Spillovers and their Interrelationships with Trade," OECD Trade Policy Papers 80, OECD Publishing.
    11. Romer, Paul M, 1990. "Endogenous Technological Change," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 71-102, October.
    12. Sébastien Miroudot & Enrico Pinali & Nicolas Sauter, 2007. "The Impact of Pro-Competitive Reforms on Trade in Developing Countries," OECD Trade Policy Papers 54, OECD Publishing.
    13. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/10147 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Ethier, Wilfred J, 1982. "National and International Returns to Scale in the Modern Theory of International Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(3), pages 389-405, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2014. "Gravity Equations: Workhorse,Toolkit, and Cookbook," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 131-195, Elsevier.
    2. Andrés Rodríguez-Clare, 2005. "Intervenciones microeconómicas después del Consenso de Washington," Research Department Publications 4394, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    3. Andrés Rodríguez-Clare, 2005. "Microeconomic Interventions after the Washington Consensus," Research Department Publications 4393, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    4. Kristian Behrens & Frédéric Robert‐Nicoud, 2009. "Krugman's Papers in Regional Science: The 100 dollar bill on the sidewalk is gone and the 2008 Nobel Prize well‐deserved," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(2), pages 467-489, June.
    5. Richard Frensch & Jan Hanousek & Evžen Kocenda, 2012. "Incomplete Specialization and Offshoring across Europe," CESifo Working Paper Series 3809, CESifo.
    6. Edward L. Glaeser & Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto, 2010. "Did the Death of Distance Hurt Detroit and Help New York?," NBER Chapters, in: Agglomeration Economics, pages 303-337, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Joseph Francois & Bernard Hoekman, 2010. "Services Trade and Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 642-692, September.
    8. van de Klundert, T.C.M.J. & Smulders, J.A., 1991. "Reconstructing growth theory : A survey," Other publications TiSEM 19355c51-17eb-4d5d-aa66-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    9. Llanes Gastón & Trento Stefano, 2011. "Anticommons and Optimal Patent Policy in a Model of Sequential Innovation," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-27, August.
    10. Ahn, JaeBin & Choi, Moon Jung, 2020. "From firm-level imports to aggregate productivity: Evidence from Korean manufacturing firm data," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    11. repec:hal:pseose:hal-00975562 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Daniel Münich & Martin Srholec & Michael Moritz & Johannes Schäffler, 2014. "Mothers and Daughters: Heterogeneity of German Direct Investments in the Czech Republic," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2014(1), pages 42-62.
    13. Alcalá, Francisco & Solaz, Marta, 2018. "International Relocation of Production and Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 13422, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Katharina Längle, 2020. "Offshoring: What Consequences for Workers? Evidence from Global Value Chains," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 20005, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    15. Duranton, Gilles & Puga, Diego, 2014. "The Growth of Cities," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 5, pages 781-853, Elsevier.
    16. Los, Bart & Timmer, Marcel & Vries, Gaaitzen J. de, 2013. "Made in Europe? Trends in International Production Fragmentation," GGDC Research Memorandum GD-131, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    17. James R. Markusen & Thomas F. Rutherford & David Tarr, 2000. "Foreign Direct Investments in Services and the Domestic Market for Expertise," NBER Working Papers 7700, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Gancia, Gino & Zilibotti, Fabrizio, 2005. "Horizontal Innovation in the Theory of Growth and Development," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 3, pages 111-170, Elsevier.
    19. Wei-Bin Zhang, 2018. "An Integration of Solow’s Growth and Dixit-Stiglitz’s Monopolistic Competition Models," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 68(4), pages 3-19, October-D.
    20. Andrés Rodríguez-Clare, 2005. "Coordination Failure, Clusters, and Microeconomic Interventions," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2005), pages 1-41, August.
    21. Carlos Humberto Ortiz & Javier Andrés Castro, 2008. "Technological Integration and Income Gaps," Revista Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, CIE, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    merchandise exports; world trade structure; parts and components; intra-trade; concentration of exports;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F18 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Environment

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:beo:journl:v:54:y:2009:i:181:p:55-92. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Goran Petrić (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/efbeoyu.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.