Abstract
While the beginning of the new millennium offered hope for accelerated economic performance and a rapid narrowing of the performance gap compared to the EU average, the last almost fifteen years have brought a slowdown in the process of real convergence for Slovakia, as well as a gradual deterioration of its position in international rankings that assess the qualitative aspects of economic development. This paper investigates the trajectory of Slovakia’s trade specialization with a focus on technological and R&D intensity, using intra-EU export data and revealed comparative advantage (RCA) indicators for the period 2002–2024. The analysis tracks the evolution of four export categories classified by R&D intensity and examines the stability of specialization patterns through Galtonian regression. The results point to persistent medium-tech specialization and signs of β-de-specialization in several sectors, particularly in high-tech exports. These findings suggest that Slovakia’s current export structure, while technologically more sophisticated in appearance, may lack depth in value-added and innovation content. The paper concludes that catching-up economies like Slovakia face limited growth opportunities from static specialization patterns and that long-term convergence prospects depend on structural transformation toward knowledge-intensive and innovation-driven sectors.