After a brief period of liberal agricultural policies, Central and East European (CEE) countries have begun to rely increasingly on price subsidies and trade restrictions. We outline the situation of CEE agriculture and describe current policies. Scarce government funds could be better used to...

In the first half of the 1990s many Central and East European countries (CEECs) experienced very high growth rates of exports to OECD nations. This paper investigates the contribution of sources of comparative advantage and economic restructuring on the pattern, composition and volume of trade....

The radical liberalization of foreign trade in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989 has been a key part of the economic reform and has been accompanied by a full-scale geographical reorientation of international trade from East to West. Increased trade with the EU has been associated with...

This paper analyses the political economy of trade liberalization by the European Community towards Eastern nations. We identify the sectors that are both sensitive and politically effective. We find that Eastern nations may have a comparative advantage in industries that use capital and...

This paper develops a theory of optimal sequencing of regional integration and applies it to the specific question of Central and East European countries (CEECs) and the EU. We show that the timing of transition and integration has implications for the long-term trade structure of Europe. In...

This paper explores options for governments of Central and East European countries to increase the sensitivity of competition law enforcement to trade and investment policy, thereby supporting a liberal trade policy stance. The competition laws of these countries tend to resemble European Union...

The paper investigates the comparative advantage of Central and East European Countries (CEECs) through the analysis of commodity patterns of foreign trade. Due to rapid changes in production and trade structures the revealed comparative advantage may reflect both the old and the emerging...

The demise of the CMEA trading system in 1991 and the shift to convertible currency settlements and world market prices was expected to bring about a severe contraction of intra-group trade, coupled with large imbalances in trade between Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The observed...

Firm-level data for the Czech Republic during 1992–6 suggest that foreign investment has tended to flow to firms of above average size, initial profitability and initial labour productivity. After controlling for this selection bias, we find that foreign investment has a positive, but...

This paper investigates the relationship between firm restructuring and international competition in Bulgaria during 1991–4. Two hypotheses are tested. First, firms in industries that are subject to significant international competition demonstrate greater increases in efficiency over time...