Integration and Trade Specialization in Central and Eastern European Countries: Towards A New Core-Periphery Structural Differentiation?

This paper investigates the dynamics of trade patterns in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), in order to assess whether the EU integration process generates convergence between the older EU member states (EU15) and the CEE’s economies (EU12). The analysis specifically focuses on specialization/diversification trends in connection with the intra-EU convergence, examining the comparative advantage convergence (Balassa indexes of RCA and RSCA) between EU12 and EU15. Despite a high degree of specialization in the EU12, no significant differences among the CEE economies, in terms of growth and convergence, might be observed. However, although the reverse relationship between the specialization and the level of development has been confirmed, in some CEE countries (Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria), the direct relation between the size of the economy and the degree of export diversification was invalidated.