When it seems that everything or nearly everything has been said about the prerequisites and prospects of economic growth - in the Polish context, too (Kolodko 2002b and 2002c; Noga 2004) - it is worthwhile to revisit certain aspects of this phenomenon, which is of vital importance for the...

This paper investigates the productivity performance of CEE countries vis-à-vis the EU-15 during the 1990s to detect sources of convergence between the two regions. The paper shows that changes in labour intensity have been an important source of productivity convergence during the 1990s, and...

In recent years, the potential use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and, more particularly, the Internet as an instrument of change, and economic development and growth has attracted considerable attention. Whereas much of the policy discussion has focused on the promotion of...

This paper investigates the role of information and communication technology (ICT) as a driver of improved productivity performance of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries and Russia (CEER) relative to the EU-15 and the U.S. during the 1990s. The paper investigates how, and to what...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the potential of ICT in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries for faster convergence with the EU-15 income level. The paper investigates this question from both macro and industry perspectives. First, it argues that, between 1995 and 2001, ICT...

The paper examines the effects of political trust on fiscal consolidations. Building on the works of Easton (1965) and Gamson (1968) a theoretical framework is derived on the main channels through which the success of fiscal consolidation can be affected by the level of political trust in the...

Throughout the history of the European Union quite a few cases of transformation of typical emigration countries into countries of both emigration and immigration have been noted. This regards Italy (end of 60s/beginning of 70s), Ireland (end of 80s/beginning of 90s), Greece (in the 80s) and...