Export competitiveness and comparative advantage of Republic of Serbia

Abstract

The paper deals with the analysis of Serbian export competitiveness, i.e. the identification of comparative advantages and the degree of specialization in international trade from 2011 to 2020. The Standard International Trade Classification (SITC Rev. 4) was used to classify the sectors. Results were obtained by calculating the RCA, RSCA and TSI indices and constructing a competitiveness matrix. The results show that Serbia achieves comparative advantages in several industries, but their export share in total exports of Serbia is extremely low. On the other hand, in most sectors, which dominate in total exports with their share, there is no comparative advantage. Also, the results of the TSI are discouraging and show that Serbia does not specialize in exports or that its economy is predominantly dependent on imports. In addition, the competitiveness matrix, which presents export growth rates in Serbia and the world, shows that all sectors are promising and have accelerated growth. Based on the analysis of all indicators, it was concluded that Serbia has low export competitiveness with the identification of industries that have the potential for improvement.