The Soviet Union's collapse brought economic uncertainty to many Ukrainians. Approximately 20 percent of the population, 10 million people, currently survive on incomes below the state-set subsistence minimum figure. Given the unrealistic nature of this state-produced definition, “poverty”...

The purpose of the study is to analyse the issues of economic, social and institutional factors in the growth of agri-food sector and the development of rural areas in Europe. The authors of chapters included in this volume try to answer the questions concerning above-mentioned phenomenon on the...

Melitz and Ottaviano's (2008) firm-heterogeneity model predicts that trade liberalization induces a selection process from low to high productivity firms, which translates to an industry productivity growth. A similar firms' selection effect is induced by market size. In this paper, these...

Despite the reunification of Germany more than 15 years ago, substantial differences remain between the regions that once comprised the market-driven West and the socialist, centrally planned East. Although today’s Eastern German economy is less competitive than the Western German economy,...