THE REGIONAL SPECIALIZATION OF EXPORTS IN AUSTRIA (AN EMPIRICAL-STUDYOF THE SPATIAL PATTERN OF EXPORT ACTIVITIES CONCERNING GOODS)

This paper attempts to analyse the spatial pattern of export activitie s in Austria. Because official statistics fail to provide pertinent in formation on regional exports, empirical studies on these issues are m issing so far. Regional export figures are estimated for 1991, using i nformation from various firms' data banks. Concerning trade in goods, the exports of the Austrian economy are recorded for 98 regions (i.e. the political districts) and 127 product groups (three-digit-level). T he empirical results obtained in this way appear to be both reliable a nd representative. First of all the technological pattern of exports f rom different types of regions and the specialisation of regional econ omies with respect to their export activities are analysed. Then a sim ple 'industry-mix model' (based on shift-and-share methodology) is use d in order to estimate the effect of the sectoral composition of a reg ional economy on its export specialisation. Estimation results show th at about three quarters of the variance in regional export ratios may be attributed to the specific industry-mix of the individual regions. Lastly a conceptual model is employed which attempts to analyse the ef fects of several supply-oriented characteristics (such as production e fficiency, economies of scale, technological specialisation, urbanisat ion economies and transaction costs) on the regional export specialisa tion. It indicates that economies of scale (measured in terms of firm sizes) and transcation costs (measured in terms of travelling time to Western Europe) are particularly important.