Jeremiás Máté Balogh

The global competitiveness of European wine producers

Purpose Comparative advantage is an important indicator in the analysis of international trade flow; however, in empirical studies on agriculture it is often neglected. The purpose of this paper is to analyse global comparative advantage in the European Union (EU) wine industry and to test the duration and stability of trade indices. Design/methodology/approach The paper applies the theory of comparative advantages by using the Balassa indices to European wine trade (based on the 16 biggest producers) data from the period 2000-2013. Moreover, it applies stability and duration analysis on comparative advantages calculated. Findings Results suggest that Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain are the highest ranked European wine producers in the world market and have the largest comparative advantages. However, duration and stability tests indicate that trade advantages have weakened for the majority of these countries. The paper discusses a number of reasons for this downturn, including changes to Common Agricultural Policy wine regulation, economic crisis, and the rise of New World wine producers. Originality/value The originality of the paper is that it applies the theory of comparative advantage to top wine exporters in the EU. The paper also makes valuable contributions to the wine literature by analysing the duration and stability of comparative advantage in the global wine trade. Moreover, the identification of industry-specific causes for changing patterns in comparative advantage in the EU might be important to the wine industry.

A földrajzi távolság, a kulturális hasonlóság és a szabadkereskedelem hatása a borkereskedelemre

A globalizalodo vilaggazdasagban a vezető bortermelő orszagok egyre jelentősebb borkereskedelmet bonyolitanak le egymas kozott. Mig Europaban a fogyasztok egyre kevesebb bort vasarolnak, addig Amerikaban es Azsiaban a bor iranti kereslet folyamatosan bővul: a borkereskedelem foldrajzi atrendeződese zajlik. A kulturalis hasonlosag es a foldrajzi tavolsag kereskedelemre gyakorolt hatasat gyakran a kereskedelemelmeletek gravitacios modelljevel elemzik. E tanulmany azt vizsgalja, hogy a fő borexportalo orszagok kozotti foldrajzi tavolsag, kulturalis hasonlosag es szabadkereskedelem milyen hatassal van a nemzetkozi borkereskedelemre, annak koltsegeire. A regresszios becsles eredmenyei alatamasztjak, hogy a borkereskedelem koltsegei alacsonyabbak, ha a kereskedelmi partnerek kulturalisan hasonlok, foldrajzilag kozel helyezkednek el egymashoz, vagy van tengeri kikotőjuk, tagjai a WTO-nak, illetve ha kotottek egymassal regionalis kereskedelmi megallapodast. Ezenkivul megallapithato, hogy az angolszasz, a latin-amerikai es az europai kulturalis klaszterek elsősorban egymassal kereskednek. A kutatas szamos kulturalis valtozo alkalmazasaval es tobb okonometriai modell, illetve becslesi eljaras nagymintas tesztelesevel gazdagitja a szakirodalmat.* Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kod: Q17, F13, F14.

Country and industry specific determinants of intra-industry agri-food trade in the Baltic Countries

Th e article analyses the country and industry specifi c determinants of the horizontal and vertical intra-industry agri-food trade between the Baltic Countries and the European Union in 1999–2013. Results obtained by the GMM panel model estimations suggest that distance is negatively related to IIT, implying that geographical distance is an obstacle for intra-industry agri-food trade. Moreover, factor endowments are ambiguously related to IIT as land is found to be negatively, while labour and machinery to be positively related to both sides of the IIT. Results also show that product diff erentiation fosters two way trade of the quality-diff erentiated goods as a positive relationship exists between the agricultural employment and IIT. As to productivity, all model runs show a negative relationship for HIIT but positive for VIIT, implying that low-quality product exports dominate the agri-food trade of the Baltic Countries. Furthermore, FDI was also found to have a negative relationship with IIT, suggesting that foreign capital does not foster IIT.