The paper focuses on the question whether banks and capital markets in Central Europe are capable of exerting a positive influence on enterprise performance at the present stage of the economic transformation. These markets are characterised by privileged, collaborative interfirm/interbank...

Enterprises in post-communist economies have been subject to a wide range of shocks as the old economic order has been swept away. It has been claimed that among the most important of these shocks have been: elimination of soft budget constraints, foreign trade shocks, and over-devaluation. The...

This paper argues that traditional explanations of the fiscal crisis in transition economies overlook the crucial interconnection between the reduction in subsidies expenditure and the decrease in profit tax revenues. It thus contends that the impact on the fiscal budget of the crisis of...

On December 16, 1991 Poland signed an Association Agreement with the European Communities which came into force on February 1, 1994. The remaining countries of the Wyshegrad Group (Hungary, and the Czech and Slovak Republics) also signed such agreements with the European Union. It is...

This paper describes ways that the CEEs can speed their convergence with the EU by emulating the growth strategies of the very fast growing economies. In Section II, we introduce the VFGEs, and discuss some of the sources of their superior growth performance. In Section III, we demonstrate the...

The paper provides an analyses of the public finance reform in Central European Countries during the economic transition. The process of reforming public finance (covering both tax and expenditure reforms) is a long lasting one with specific features in individual countries. Nevertheless, some...

This paper focuses on adjustments in fiscal policy in five CEC’s whose accession seems to be politically most feasible, and who have expressed the strongest desire to join the Union. They include: Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Slovenia. Fiscal consolidation in these...

Saving, Investment, Financial Integration and FDI in Central Europe: Evidence on domestic savings and investments in industrialised countries indicates that capital markets are not perfectly integrated. On the contrary, various measures of financial integration prove that capital has become...

The paper discusses the salience of the Finno-Ugric links in substantiating intra-EU cooperation among Finland, Estonia and Hungary. The focus is on investigating evidence of such cooperation in the EU's human rights and minority rights related policies towards the Russian Federation and other...

Long-term care (LTC) in the new EU member states, which used to belong to the former socialist countries, is not yet a legally separated sector of social security. However, the aging dynamics are more intensive in these states than in the old EU member states. This paper analyses the process of...