The economies of Vienna and Bratislava have followed quite different development paths over the last decades. While Vienna's population increased by about 20% within two decades, Bratislava's population mostly stagnated. However, when measured in GDP per capita at purchasing power parties,...

Die Wirtschaften von Wien und Bratislava haben sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten sehr unterschiedlich entwickelt. Die Bevölkerung Wiens ist um etwa 20% angestiegen, jene von Bratislava hat dagegen stagniert. Nimmt man allerdings das BIP pro Kopf zu Kaufkraftparitäten als Maß, so hat das...

Kosovo growth dynamics are encouraging but the level of economic activity is very low. Mass unemployment hints at macro-imbalances. Net transfers from migrants are pivotal for covering the huge trade balance deficit, as manufacturing exports are almost non-existent. Wages are low but increasing...

The European Commission has set a target date of 2025 for Western Balkan EU accession, while also outlining a broader new strategy which includes Brussels taking a more active role in solving political disputes in the region, and upgrading infrastructure as part of the Berlin Process. We welcome...

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a vision to revive the ancient 'Silk Road' by means of massive infrastructure investments throughout Eurasia and Africa, was first presented by China's President Xi Jinping in 2013. China has identified the region of Central East and Southeast Europe (CESEE)...

New Directions and Financial Constraints in Infrastructure Investment Investment in infrastructure is important to generating long-term productivity gains. The Western Balkans lack infrastructure capacity and investment – particularly in non-traditional sectors such as water, sewerage, waste,...

The economic effects of the construction of modern road transport infrastructure in the Balkans, one of Europe's economically most backward regions, is being analysed in an instrumental variables setting. In order to avoid endogeneity the construction of new highways is being instrumented by the...

In this paper we analyse the economic effects of railway infrastructure at the national level for European countries as well as at the local level for Southeast European cities based on a novel railway database capturing decades of the 19th century up to the early 21th century. A panel fixed...

The present work uses long-term economic development data (1952-2010) as well as a detailed industry-level panel data (1963-2011) to analyse industrialisation patterns in Europe, implications of economic backwardness and the role of European integration in facilitating industrialisation and...