Most Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) countries saw a substantial rise in foreign currency lending to households during the last decade. This involved risks to macrofinancial stability, in particular because most of these borrowers were unhedged. This paper provides evidence on...

We investigate the impact of the emergence of China as a global competitor on the trade performance of Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) countries at the EU-15 market, i.e. the fifteen EU members as of 1995. The paper takes a comprehensive approach in terms of empirical methods...

For decades, countries aspiring to join the European Union (EU) have been linked to it through migration. Yet little is known about how migration affects individual support for joining the EU in prospective member states. We explore the relationship between migration and support for EU accession...

The rapid increase in intra-industry trade (IIT) between the EU15 and Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European (CESEE) countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union indicates a structural change in the nature of trade in CESEE and a new process of transition and real convergence to the EU....

This chapter offers a framework to analyse the impact of EU membership on economic ("means"), institutional ("ways") and social ("ends") convergence of EU11 countries to the frontier. It identifies the channels through which this impact works: trade, investment, finance, migration and...

Trade and access to international capital markets are often assumed to support countries’ development, notably through technology transfers that support convergence. In this chapter we review economic developments in the EU Central, Eastern and Southeastern (CESEE) countries (namely Bulgaria,...

Countries in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe (CESE) face the challenge of becoming "demographically old before being economically rich". Ensuring the long-term stability and adequacy of pension systems was one of the most important tasks that these countries faced following economic...