The Role of Transport Industry in Croatian Economy: Comparison with EU28

This article provides a comprehensive review of trends in transport industry and its role in Croatian and EU economy. It is well known that transport represents one of the crucial industry of the economy. Transport industry and related transport infrastructure networks are seen as key drivers in the promotion of economic growth and development. With around € 1.5 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA), the transport and storage services industry accounted more than 4.5 % of total GVA in Croatia in 2014, while it was 5% at the EU level. This paper surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on the linkages between transport industry and economic growth. The aim of the research is to analyze the role of transport industry in Croatian economy, distinguishing among different modes of transport. It is analyzed the economic performance of transport industry and trends of each mode of transport by using statistical methods. In the paper is estimated the impact of different variables on transport industry, moreover on gross value added of transport industry. It is used panel data analysis on data spanning 15 years, from 2001 to 2015 for 28 EU Member states, in order to estimate the effects of the most important variables that affect grow value added of transport industry. Fixed effects estimator shows that gross value added of manufacturing industry and compensation of employees have a significant impact on the gross value added of transport industry. Considering the trends in the transport industry in the past 14 years, among all modes of transport, the land transport e.g. road transport still counts for the most important factor in growth of transport industry on the both EU level and in each member state by itself.