Der internationale Waren- und Dienstleistungshandel hat für deutsche KMU eine große Bedeutung. Die Ausfuhren und Einfuhren sind im letzten Jahrzehnt tendenziell ebenso gestiegen wie die Anzahl international aktiver Unternehmen. Im Jahr 2010 waren mindestens 345.000 KMU als Exporteure und...

Globalization is everywhere. At least, that’s the impression that it gives: more and more countries are opening up to international trade and fewer and fewer sectors seem to be protected from international competition. This impression correctly matches traditional analyses, which consider that...

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la evolución de la integración comercial y de la estructura productiva de los países de Europa del Este durante el periodo 1995-2004, y compararla con la propia evolución de la economía española. Para ello, se describen en primer lugar las grandes...

For the period 2004-2010 many OECD countries have experienced a decline in industrial real value-added per capita with negative consequences for domestic economic development, and labour markets, not only in industry but also in services and other production sectors. Free competition policies...

While the distinction between manufacturing and services becomes increasingly blurred to some observers, we find, using a panel of Swedish firms, clear evidence that foreign sales (exports) are more important than domestic sales for stimulating R&D. This is particularly clear for manufacturing...

European integration brings about major impulses for structural change. Analyzing the new competitive structure of countries and industries within the enlarged European Union is a great challenge for economic research. Focusing on the four cohesion countries, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece,...

Using a centre-two periphery new economic geography model we study the location and real wage effects of the EU’s Eastern enlargement on current and future EU member countries under pure trade integration and with migration of skilled labour. The quality of final and intermediate products...

One of the aims of the internationally funded Investment Compact of the Balkan Stability Pact is to reduce investment risk in the region and lay the foundations for the inflow of private capital. This paper discusses the situation of foreign direct investment (FDI) in South-East European...

Recent developments have revealed that (i) advanced transition countries have received most of the FDI to date, especially greenfield projects; (ii) more countries than in the mid?1990s are resorting to FDI in order to accelerate privatization (Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia); and (iii)...

This paper follows the definition of international competitiveness of countries (nations) as defined by Trabold (1995) including the ability to sell, the ability to attract FDI and the ability to adjust - all these leading to the ability to earn. These components can be measured by specific...