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This paper aims at the comprehension of feasible development trajectories conceptualized within the new path-development model in the case of two less developed regions in Central Europe (CE). The main new element of this paper comprises the examination of the perception of key barriers and mechanisms hindering particular evolutionary trajectories by regional stakeholders and their comparison with those conceptualized in the literature. Although conceptual characteristics of prevailing path types in different regional innovation systems do exist, empirical verification from less developed regions such as those in CE is insufficient. On the basis of interviews with regional stakeholders, a typology of barriers for pathways conceptualized to date was elaborated from a CE perspective. Our study showed that the feasibility of a more radical path is hindered by a wide range of barriers operating at different levels. The elaborated typology of barriers for various path-development trajectories outlined the main hindrances constraining key regional actors, linkages and institutions. Given the general weakness of the overall RIS, path-extension and path-modernization trajectories are bound to be the most realistic options for this type of less developed regions. Our study revealed existing regional dynamics as built predominately upon incremental changes within rooted but prospective industrial branches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, intense processes of industrial reconversion occurred in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Adopting a territorial perspective, the aim of this paper is to assess the impact of industrial restructuring on the economic growth of CEE regions, classified according to the typology of the industrial reconversion that occurred. Results point out that those areas able to reconvert their productive specialization to both new sectors and higher value functions achieved the best economic performance. These findings provide interesting insights on the past mechanisms of growth in CEE countries and they convey relevant policy implications for their future industrial strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we analyze the effectiveness of fiscal policy—for a group of four Central and Eastern European countries. The recent literature shows that fiscal multipliers in the developed economies are higher during recession than expansion. So far, similar empirical analyses have been lacking for CEE countries. The results presented in this article show that fiscal multipliers in CEE countries differ with respect to the phase of the business cycle. Based on the SVAR methodology in which we allow for deterministic regime switching, we show that the government spending multipliers are significantly higher when the output gap is negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collapse of the former Soviet Union and the subsequent transition process has transformed the political, social and economic landscape in central and eastern Europe, the Balkans and Russia. Reforms of the existing regulatory and institutional framework have created the basis for continued economic expansion. The resulting rising incomes of households have become one of the main drivers for prosperous banking markets. To benefit from this positive trend, many banks have opted for an expansion into mortgage lending. The objective of this paper is therefore to analyse how these countries have managed to convert the positive economic development into better housing for their citizens (including the access to mortgage credit). The paper sets out the criteria which are considered essential for the development of primary mortgage markets and compares these with mortgage market development, starting with an outline of the situation before the beginning of the transition process, including an analysis of what has enabled the emergence of the mortgage markets and finishing by an overview of the present situation. The paper concludes with an assessment of the progress made since the start of the transition process, thereby providing an outlook for the further development of mortgage markets, in particular in view of the current turbulence in the international financial markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this discussion paper is to examine the relevance of selected influential theoretical and conceptual approaches to regional competitiveness for specific geographical and institutional contexts of Central European (CE) regions. We argue that strategic documents and policies (both nation- and region-wide) in CE countries are based on un-critical applications of a few popular concepts of competitiveness that were originally proposed and mainly applied in Western European and US regions. Existing empirical evidence documents a strong role of exogenous factors of competitiveness in CE regions, the in-house character of firm innovations and weak demand for innovations, and other impediments of R&D collaboration. We suggest that these (and other factors) limit the applicability of concepts such as regional innovation systems and Porterian clusters in the context of many CE regions. On the other hand, we argue that some other concepts such as the global production networks perspective or related variety and economic complexity can provide some relevant and inspiring frameworks for analysing regional competitiveness in CE countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently the marketization thesis which holds that the commodified realm is stretching its tentacles ever wider and deeper across the globe has been challenged in the context of Western economies and the third world by an emerging post-development corpus of thought. The aim of this paper is to extend this critique of the powerful narrative of marketization by turning attention to Eastern and Central Europe. Interrogating the nature of work and trajectories of economic development in these post-socialist societies, it unravels not just the continuing presence of a multiplicity of non-market economic practices but also evidence of diverse development paths being pursued. The outcome of this re-representation of the nature and direction of economic development in Eastern and Central Europe is a call to transcend the view that ‘there is no alternative to capitalism’ and for debates about the future of work to become more open to the evaluation of alternative possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to conduct a growth accounting exercise for twentyseven transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The analysis is divided into two parts. In part one we discuss the most salient features of these countries' growth paths between 1990 and 2003. The objective of the second part is to establish what proportion of the real GDP growth resulted from increased inputs of labor and capital and what was the contribution to growth of increased productivity of these factors (TFP). Our analysis has shown that changes in TFP were the most important driving force behind the GDP growth in former socialist countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the returns to education in transitional economies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic and the Ukraine in the 1990s, and in China in the 1980s and 1990s. In the pre-transition period, the returns to education in the six CEE countries were low at about 2-4%, while those in China were even lower at less than 2%. As the process of transition towards a market economy evolved over time, the returns to education steadily increased, and non-state sector workers and young workers were rewarded with higher returns to their education than their counterparts in the state sector and older age categories. The marginal returns to university education are the highest of all of the marginal returns to various education levels. Moreover, the results show that it took about a decade for the six CEE countries, and two decades for China, to raise their respective returns to education to the 10% level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article discusses the agenda for the socio-economic reconstruction of Central and Eastern Europe. Faced with the contradictions between the promises and results of current policies, a group of scholars from Eastern and Western Europe met under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna in October 1991 to discuss the main issues of the evolving transformation process on the basis of more than a dozen specially prepared papers. The result was the critical assessment of the current transformation strategy, as well as an Agenda of topics for discussion which seem to have been overlooked. The guiding principle of this Agenda is its concern for socio-economic reconstruction and growth of output, employment, and welfare. This objective requires conscious action by individuals, collective actors, and public authorities. These actions should be stimulated and coordinated by a socio-economic context in which the pursuit of individual interest adds both to individual and to social welfare. Such a context is made up of market forces supported by appropriate institutions (including forms of property and contracts) and guided by appropriate policies. They cannot, however, be ends in themselves.

Amazement and surprise were the common reactions of Western political scientists to the fall of communism; they did not foresee, nor could they explain, the collapse of the regime. This paper argues that the reason why Western political scientists could not foretell the fall of the communist system was their overcommitment to artificial models of society and their lack of concern with economics. Western political science, especially, overlooked how the concept of privatizing the economy affected the devolution of the communist order, in contrast, I examine the question of the "sudden revolution" in the historical context and in the context of the privatization of the economy. The privatization of the economy, or rather, the specific ways privatization is conducted, is the main factor that explains the "peaceful collapse" puzzle and the newly emerging tensions as well. The paper consists of two parts. In the first part, "Trismus," I argue against the picture of Central Europe painted by Western political scientists. The question "Why did the communist order, a regime that defended itself stubbornly for a long time, at last collapse peacefully?" concludes the first part and opens the second, "Transformation." The point "Nomenklatura Chrysalis" is crucial for solving the puzzle of the "sudden" and peaceful fall of communism. In the conclusion, I refer to the current, and probably future, economic and political tensions that are likely to emerge in countries undergoing ownership transformations. Eventually this involves me in Fukuyama's proposition of the "end of history." Amazement and surprise were the common reactions of Western political scientists to the fall of communism; they did not foresee, nor could they explain, the collapse of the regime. This paper argues that the reason why Western political scientists could not foretell the fall of the communist system was their overcommitment to artificial models of society and their lack of concern with economics.... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the influence of exchange rate policies on the economic recovery of ten countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) which are the new members of the European Union. It discusses the role of the loose monetary policy in advancing the economic problem of the region as well as the impact of the global financial crisis on the area. The function of the post-crisis corrections in the account deficits in CEE countries in steadying economic growth is discussed.

According to economic theory, a capital inflows reversal-the sudden stop- has a significant negative effect on economic growth. This article investigates the direct impact of current account reversals on growth in Central and Eastern European countries. Two steps to conduct the analysis are applied. In the first step, the standard growth equation is estimated when including the current account reversal impulse dummy. I find that after a current account reversal, the growth rate declines by 1.10 percent in the current year The subsequent analysis of the adjustment dynamics builds upon the notion of convergence. The unconditional and conditional convergence coefficients are found to be -0.47 and -0.52, respectively. This implies that the consequences of the reversal are likely eliminated after 3.3 years when the actual growth rate is back at its equilibrium level, ceteris paribus. Finally, the cumulative loss associated with a sudden stop in capital flows is about 2.3 percent. One may infer that Central and Eastern European countries are relatively flexible in terms of adjustment and reallocation of resources given the findings in similar literature examining either a more general sample or concentrating on rather different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth in Central and East European countries (CEE) is territorially unbalanced, more so than in most other parts of the EU. The benefits of transformation in these countries have been unequally distributed among particular social groups and territories—with the emergence of highly educated and internationally successful professionals and entrepreneurs located mainly in metropolitan areas on the one hand, and structural unemployment, persistent poverty and social exclusion in peripheral regions on the other. These regional imbalances are characterised by a process of metropolisation that has privileged a handful of dynamic urban centres while exacerbating the structural problems of old industrial regions, vast rural areas and regions located on borders, and especially the EU's eastern borders. Different as they are in social, cultural and geographical terms, these declining or stagnating regions share general problems of economic peripherality and many negative effects of structural change, such as rural depopulation, ‘brain drain’, disinvestment and, frequently, below-average levels of socio-economic well-being. This polarised economic and territorial development within CEE poses challenges not only for the respective countries, but also for European cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article traces Romania's development to a low-tax country among the member states of the European Union by analysing the major tax law changes in corporate taxation since 1992. We compute and compare the effective company tax burdens of a European model company at different points of time which constitute milestones in the development of corporate taxation in Romania. We find that the significant reduction of the corporate income tax rate from 45% in 1992 to 16% since 2005 has not been accompanied by a comprehensive broadening of the corporate income tax base as it has been in many longstanding member states of the EU and the OECD. Since 1992 the average company tax burden of the underlying model company has dropped by almost 65%. As a result, Romania holds second position among the group of Central and Eastern European EU member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the EU's role in the emergence of international development policy in the 10 member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Development policy provides useful insights into policy making as it is a key way that states operationalise their foreign policy. Thus, development policy gives us insights into the foreign policy priorities of the new member states. This article reviews the emergence and elaboration of policy relating to international development in the new member states and explores how far we have witnessed the Europeanisation of development cooperation in CEE states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores why several transitional economics have succeeded through the pursuit of policies which differ from the radical economic liberalization credited for economic success in Central Europe. The author states that several countries with liberal policies have not succeeded. The author argues that the aim of the policymaker is to create markets without causing government failure. The success of countries with lower levels of development under authoritarian regimes is talked about. The article also examines whether development is predetermined by the past.

General experience suggests a positive and causal link between financial development and economic growth. Is this already the case in Serbia with its quite distinct political and economic transition? Drawing from successful financial sector transition in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), we discuss ongoing reforms in South Eastern European Countries (SEE) with a specific focus on Serbia. We find that recently tightened bank regulation and supervision, and growing foreign involvement in Serbia, follows the positive experience from CEE in a way that is conducive to economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been intensively involved in rural development in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Many of these organisations are not only initiating efforts to protect the environment, but are also leading forces for social and economic development in the rural areas in which they work. This contribution looks at the principles of sustainable rural development and suggests that pre-accession initiatives undertaken by the EU that are relevant to rural areas have largely missed this mark. The study then examines specific examples of the ways that NGOs have taken the lead in developing practical models for addressing the problems and particular needs of rural areas in CEE countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article interprets Central and Eastern European transition through the lenses of the post-Washington consensus. It searches for what has proved to be original and theoretically novel in the region if measured against development theory. To what extent does the mainstream remain relevant as an analytical instrument of policy issues? Is it possible to establish a pure economics of transformation? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With an eye on the transition from socialism to capitalism in Central Europe and the decline of industrial economies such as Britain, the article contributes to the debate on the economic development of Japan and the newly industrialized countries of East Asia. It begins with a discussion of the reasons why accounts derived from neoclassical economic theory have dominated explanations of industrialization in the region. By reference to three recent books on the development of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, the article proceeds to mount a critique of the economic orthodoxy, arguing for a central role to be accorded to state influence and direction over the economy. The article ends by suggesting that there are a number of elements in the East Asian model of development that could be creatively appropriated to inform strategies for economic rejuvenation elsewhere in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negotiated strategy as an alternative to the liberal approach is based on the interactive method of social change. Implementing this strategy is no easy task. It calls for both a fundamental theoretical reassessment of the problem of systemic transformation as well as changes in habitual patterns of behaviour. Under post-socialist conditions, negotiations take on a double significance: on the one hand, they can create an institutional framework, establish the rules of the market game, and allow particular economic projects to be put into practice (the meso and microstructural level). On the other hand, the resulting arrangements can be used as a basis for defining and implementing a precise strategy to shape the economic system, thus `building up' the state (the macrostructural level). The implementation of the liberal approach based on the imperative method of social change has created an `interaction crisis' in post-socialist societies. One of the major symptoms of this crisis is the contradiction between political articulation and institutionalization. It seems that the only effective, pro-transformation way of overcoming this contradiction would be to create structures able to bridge the gap between society and the authorities, and to mediate interests both between various social groups and between these groups and the authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]