Title: International comparison of import and export efficiency of transport services

Authors: Marjan Sternad; Gorazd Justinek; Tina Cvahte

Addresses: Faculty of Logistics, University of Maribor, Mariborska cesta 7, SI-3000 Celje, Slovenia ' Graduate School of Government and European Studies, Predoslje 39, SI-4000 Kranj, Slovenia ' Faculty of Logistics, University of Maribor, Mariborska cesta 7, SI-3000 Celje, Slovenia

Abstract: Services are a sector that is increasing in importance, especially in comparison to traditional production. Due to the unstoppable trends of globalisation and production activities relocating to countries with lower production costs, transport services are becoming increasingly important. Thus, the export and import of these services are analysed in this paper. The comparative strengths of selected countries based on their transport services transactions are calculated using indexes such as RCA and RCA 2. In this regard, Slovenia, a small and open economy, was selected as a base country. Import and export profiles for Slovenia in the field of transport in relation to ten other EU countries are presented, and comparative advantages of the selected countries are assessed. The main findings show that the largest EU economies do not achieve comparative advantages in the transport sector. As for Slovenia, it has achieved a comparative advantage as measured by the RCA index in comparison with the other ten EU countries.

Keywords: transport services; international trade; comparative strengths; import efficiency; export efficiency; Slovenia; EU countries; European Union.

DOI: 10.1504/IJDIPE.2016.079167

International Journal of Diplomacy and Economy, 2016 Vol.3 No.1, pp.75 - 84

Received: 06 Jun 2015
Accepted: 06 Aug 2015
Published online: 19 Sep 2016 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article