Influence of Foreign Direct Investments on Commodity Exchange of the Republic of Croatia

Gotovo sve zemlje svijeta nastoje osigurati ubrzani razvoj svojih gospodarstava i uz pomoć inozemnih izravnih ulaganja. Budući da inozemna izravna ulaganja, uz kapital, potencijalno osiguravaju i transfer suvremene tehnologije te upravljačkih i marketinških znanja i vještina, one mogu biti značajan čimbenik rasta konkurentske sposobnosti nacionalnih gospodarstava i uključenosti zemalja u međunarodnu razmjenu. U radu se RCA metodom i „Trade Overlap“ indeksom analizira utjecaj inozemnih izravnih ulaganja na komparativne prednosti i stupanj specijalizacije u međunarodnoj robnoj razmjeni za odabranu skupinu tranzicijskih zemalja i Republiku Hrvatsku. Nastoji se utvrditi u kojoj su mjeri inozemna izravna ulaganja utjecala na izmjenu strukture vanjskotrgovinske razmjene i jesu li, u promatranom razdoblju, pridonijele rastu izvoza složenijih grupa proizvoda.Almost all countries of the world try to ensure accelerated development of their economies with the help of foreign direct investments. Since the foreign direct investments, in addition to capital, potentially ensure the transfer of contemporary technology, management and marketing knowledge and skills respectively, they can be a signifcant growth factor of competitive abilities of national economies and involvement of countries into international exchange. Trough the RCA method and “Trade Overlap” index, this paper analyzes the infuence of foreign direct investments on the comparative advantages and specialization degree in international commodity exchange for the selected group of transition countries and the Republic of Croatia. The paper tries to determine how much the foreign direct investments have infuenced the structure change of the foreign trade exchange and whether they have contributed to export growth of more complex groups of products in the observed period