Different interpretations of the automotive industry and its role in three semi-peripheral regions of the EU

The paper investigates the role of the automotive industry in the Baltic, Visegrád and Iberian region, summarizing the relevant literature. In the analysis of each country, the study discusses the importance of the automotive industry in the national economy and the role of individual countries in the global trade. Based on the literature there are different approaches regarding the activities belonging to the automotive industry. The vehicle production is vertically integrated, therefore the industry involves many other activities that sell their products to other industries as well. On the other hand economic contribution of the automotive industry can be interpreted in a broad way including downstream activities related to the use of the motor vehicle, and the socioeconomic employment as well. The broader definition of automotive industry in this paper is based on this previous approach. The study defines the automotive spillovers on the basis of the NACE nomenclature to show how these activities contribute to employment, production and value added in the examined countries.