Since beginning economic transition, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia have—with much success—employed diverse exchange rate regimes. As these countries approach EU accession, they will need to avoid the perils of too much or too little exchange rate variability when...

This paper studies the Balassa-Samuelson effect in nine Central and East European countries. Using panel cointegration techniques, we find that productivity growth in the open sector leads to inflation in non-tradable goods. Because of the low share of non-tradables and the high share of food...

The paper studies the relationship between two institutional innovations in monetary policy of the past few decades: central bank independence (CBI) and explicit inflation targeting (EIT). The aim is to make inferences about the optimal institutional design of monetary policy, and the right...

This research offers new insights into the effect of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2009 on the countries that used to be part of the Soviet bloc by focusing on a cross-regional comparison. Twenty-eight countries are grouped according to different criteria and the corresponding...

This paper explores the relationship between economic indicators and inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Central and Eastern Europe countries. We estimate a gravity model of FDI for ten countries covering the period 1993- 2010, employing the Seemingly Unrelated Regressions Method. The...

The paper examines the efficiency of Bulgarian banks and its determinants over the period 1999-2007. The levels of technical, allocative, and cost efficiency are estimated using a non-parametric methodology and then regressed upon a number of bank-specific, institutional, and EU-related factors....

The article is dedicated to the new conditions of countries’ development in the post-crisis period. Challenges to the cultural and socio-economic policy during last decade were analyzed. Religious factors are offered to be considered as important mechanisms of solving transition period...