We evaluate potential costs and benefits of Eastern enlargement of the EU. In addressing fiscal costs of enlargement in addition to tariff and nontariff barriers, we arrive at important conclusions: 1) Overall, extending EU membership to Eastern applicants is more than worth its price for...

By looking at imports of Eastern European countries we provide novel insights on the importance and magnitude of border effects and on how they are linked with technical barriers to trade. All CEECs traded with themselves more than with other countries. We grouped products into three categories;...

This paper exploits the significant reduction in impediments to labor mobility in the process of German re-unification in order to identify labor supply shocks in the West German labor market. The focus is on the quasi-experiment of the border removal in the regions situated at the German -...

Limitations placed on the movement of labor are seen as major impediments to the growth both of trade in services and of the economy overall. The temporary movement of service providers is generally expected to be less politically sensitive than the permanent movement of labor. Therefore, it...

This paper tests an endogeneity hypothesis of optimum currency area (OCA) criteria (Frankel and Rose, 1998) on a cross-section of OECD countries between 1990 and 1999. The findings indicate that convergence of business cycles relates to intra-industry trade, but has no direct relation between...

We review the literature on business-cycle correlation between the euro area and Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs), a topic that has gained attention in recent years as new EU entrants prepare for participation in the monetary union. Our meta-analysis suggests several CEECs already...

The Eastern enlargement of the European Union (EU) is likely to give a further boost to trade and capital flows, yet empirical evidence on the possible magnitudes is still scarce. This paper uses four different datasets to estimate the determinants of international asset holdings and trade...

We analyse the regionalisation of the European Union's production networks and the impact of enlargement by looking at trends in trade in intermediate and final products at different technology levels between 1995 and 2007. We find that enlargement has coincided with quite major changes in the...

This paper deals with specific issues concerning the relationship of regional development strategies and EU integration of the 'Accession Countries' of Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs). In this context the specific role of pre-accession regional development support and the future regional and...

This paper analyses the environmental dimensions the past accession of Greece, Portugal and Spain to the EU in order to draw lessons for the current accession of countries of Central and Eastern Europe. A distinction is made between scale, composition and technique effects. Two major conclusions...