The main focus of the present paper is on the emerging and likely future trade effects of enlargement. Though our particular concern is with Portugal, we set the scene by comparing the trade structures of the 10 countries of Central and Eastern Europe (i.e. the eight CEE accession states plus...

During the last three decades, a vast literature emerged on the empirical evidence of productivity spillovers from FDI. This is related to the fact that multinational firms own intangible assets which may be transmitted to domestic firms and thereby raise their productivity level. Results...

Empirical evidence on productivity spillovers - a concept that embodies the fact that foreign enterprises own intangible assets which can be transmitted to domestic firms, thus raising their productivity level - is ambiguous. With a panel data set at the firm level for the Portuguese...

This paper aims to establish whether geographical proximity between the locations of multinational firms and domestic firms facilitates the occurrence of FDI spillovers. Using data for Portugal, this hypothesis is clearly confirmed. However, the impact varies according to whether the...

The Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) have gone through a dramatic process of industrial restructuring in which the Europe Agreements have played a major role. Using detailed statistics, we analyse the transformation of CEECs’ export structures and whether it led to structural...

It has been shown that countries located further from global economic activity will have lower levels of per capita income and human capital. We evaluate, for the Portuguese case, the validity of the positive relationship of economic centrality with per capita income and with human capital at...

We rely on vertical and horizontal differentiation models to study the cross-industry and cross-country determinants of Portuguese intra-industry trade in 1997. We identify distinct factors for each type and the comparative advantage explanation for the vertical case. To confirm the robustness...

The effects of the reduction of international trade costs on the internal economic geography of each country have been very scarcely studied in empirical terms. With data for Portugal since its adhesion to the European Union, we test the hypotheses put forward by the new economic geography...

Empirical evidence about FDI spillovers to domestic firms has provided mixed results. This global evaluation has recently been complemented with the analysis of the factors that determine the existence, dimension and sign of FDI spillovers. We survey the arguments that support these factors and...

There are theoretical reasons to expect that benefits to domestic firms from foreign direct investment would be confined to the area where the multinational firm is located and that the benefits depend on the development level of the host region. However, there is a scarcity of empirical studies...