This report gives an overview of patterns of structural change in Central and Eastern European economies over the decade 1989-1999. The analysis in this paper is restricted to a sub-sample of transition economies, namely the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs) - with the exception of...

This paper analyses the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry in the CEE candidate countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) with special emphasis on trade with the European Union during the second half of the...

In this paper we attempt to quantify the incidence of different types of technical barriers to trade (TBTs) on trade structures between seven Central and Eastern European countries (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, and Romania) and the European Union at the...

This paper discusses the evolution of competitiveness, industrial and trade specialization of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs). It is shown that the paths taken by the different CEECs have been quite diverse and we attempt to show that a combination of a catching-up plus trade...

This paper analyses some of the factors behind the diverging productivity performances of the US and the EU over the 1990s and develops some conjectures regarding the likely developments for the current decade. The 1990s were characterized by two features the disappearance of the process of...

This paper looks at the experience of South East Europe which -- for the purposes of this paper -- includes the former states of Yugoslavia except for Slovenia (i.e. Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia), Albania, and the two EU candidate countries, Bulgaria and Romania....

This paper discusses the economic effects of EU enlargement for the group of Central and East European accession countries (ACs). It consists of three parts In Part A the financial aspects of accession to the EU are explained. It deals firstly with the outcome of the negotiations at the December...

· Job creation in the new EU Member States (NMS) and the EU candidate countries remains low despite high GDP growth in most countries. However, there are significant differences in developments among these countries (most recently between Poland and the other new Member States). · Labour...

In 2005 most of the new EU member states (NMS) performed even better than in 2004. They have successfully managed the accession to the EU and gained the ability to grow fast despite the anaemic performance of the old EU. FDI inflows reached a record high. In the coming two years, economic...

In an international comparison, CEECs show a relatively strong economic growth performance coming close to that of the first and second tier of Asian Tiger countries over the past decade, which emerge as the best growth performers (setting aside China). In recent years the CEECs' dynamic growth...