Der vorliegende Beitrag geht der Frage nach, in wie weit polit-ökonomische Ansätze den Prozess der Osterweiterung der Europäischen Union erklären können. Eine grundlegende These der Arbeit lautet wie folgt: Kritiker der Theorien rationaler Entscheidungen beziehen sich häufig auf eine sehr...

Capital markets have undergone massive changes in the past decade; in Western Europe but of course more fundamentally in the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). The euro has fostered the transformation of financial systems toward a more market based approach. Its impact in Eastern Europe...

This paper analyses the economic effects of the eastern enlargement of the EU both on the existing Member States and the candidate countries using simulation results of a dynamic computable general equilibrium model. In addition to conventional trade policy impacts such as custom union formation...

We consider a small structural model to describe the transmission mechanism of monetary policy and the dynamics of inflation. We first verify the validity of the general structure estimating it for Germany which represents a sort of benchmark model. At least one of the links required for the...

Exchange-rate policies of Central Eastern European Countries (CEEC) have often been a subject matter. Yet, some new insights in terms of political economy considerations upon exchange-rate policy are provided. It is pointed out that it is more appropriate to analyse exchange-rate policy in...

The CEEC are approaching the accession to the EU with a variety of exchange rate regimes. The authors find that these differences depend on economical factors as well as on the history of the countries. For that purpose, they discuss the role of the exchange rate in the stabilization of the...

The inclusion on May 1st, 2004 of eight Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) into the European Union (EU), and subsequently into the European Monetary Union (EMU) some years later, will cause deep changes within the political, economic, and social settings of the Union as well as in...

Eastward enlargement is one of the hot topics in European economics. The accession of central and eastern European Countries (CEEC) into the European Union (EU) is accompanied by an extension of the eurozone to this region. This paper surveys likely outcomes and challenges of this specific...

Once part of the European Union no 'opt-out' means, for CEE applicant countries, that they will have to become members of the Eurozone as soon as they fulfil the Maastricht criteria. However, compliance with the Stability and Growth Pact and aiming at nominal and real convergence imply efforts...

European Monetary Union (EMU) and its enlargement to prospective members in central and eastern Europe is a politically highly desired process, given that everything works out smoothly. The future eurozone will show a much higher degree of heterogeneity than now. The CEEC are in the process of...