It is customary in the empirical trade literature to analyze specialization patterns of countries using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) measures. This paper explores the pros and cons of the most commonly used RCA index: the Balassa (1965) Index of RCA. After describing the properties of...

In this paper we look at similarity and convergence of trade patterns between the EU and four of the so-called "accession countries" of Central and Eastern Europe. We analyse the export patterns of the CEECs by comparing them to those of the current members of the EU. In particular, this paper...