Vertical Specialization of Slovak Export

The paper studies the position of the Slovak economy in global value chains. It focuses on the implications arising from vertical specialisation for value added and employment, especially for the three main exporting industries motor vehicles, electrical and optical equipment, steel and steel products. For the analysis a multi-region input-output model and data from World input-output database (WIOD) are applied, covering the period 1995 - 2009. The results show that Slovak economy has one of the highest vertical specialisations around the globe. Especially in the motor vehicles production. We show that in the given period this industry was less significant in terms of value added and employment for the Slovak economy when comparing to the electrical and optical equipment and the steel industry.