Q17 - Agriculture in International TradeReturn

The meat production and meat processing industry are the most important parts of the agribusiness in the Czech Republic. The problem of the industry is its low competitiveness towards foreign producers and processors which results in negative balance of foreign trade. The aim of the article is to evaluate long-term development of value and structure of Czech foreign trade flows of meat and meat products. The analysis covers the period of 2001-2014. The problems of the negative trade balance are revealed through description of the trade flows of meat and meat products, the RCA index and relations between import and export prices. The analysis points out the problems of low competitiveness of the intermediate and finalized meat. Alternatively, Czech Republic has comparative advantage in live animals, sausages and homogenized meat products.

The paper deals with the issues of gravity models applied in the field of trade flow analysis. Applied variables, assumptions of their impacts, problems of gravity equations and their resolving (namely the endogeneity problem, the heterogeneity problem, and the identification problem) are defined in this paper. The paper provides a detailed overview of selected gravity model publications in scientific papers with an impact factor since 2000. According to the document analysis, it is clear that panel data are the most commonly used type of data in the 21st century. Fixed effects models are recommended. The choice of variables depends on the subject being examined and on the aim of the analysis. Correct model specification and inclusion of relevant variables are highly important. The results were elaborated as part of the research project IGA 20121050 "Spatial regional market integration with agricultural raw materials".