Suchergebnisse

The paper aims to explore international trade flows of the countries involved in the EU eastward enlargement processes – the current EU members (EU15) and the candidate countries (CC12). The empirical results of the study allow us to conclude that the behaviour of bilateral trade flows within the countries involved in EU eastward enlargement accords to the normal rules of gravitation, having statistically significant spatial biases caused by the trade relations, between the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) countries (the BSR bias), the border countries (the border bias) and the EU member and candidate countries (the East-West bias). The East-West trade relations are still rather weakly developed and there is a statistically significant difference in international trade patterns between the two groups – the current EU members and the applicant countries. The lessons of the Baltic Sea Region in integrating countries with different economic and political backgrounds and developing bilateral trade relations are valuable in supporting EU eastward enlargement and the reintegration of new member countries into Europe.

The paper focuses on studying economic integration of the countries that are involved in the EU eastward enlargement process giving emphasis on international trade. The main feature characterizing the EU eastward enlargement processes is integration of national economies with different historical backgrounds and structures. Regionalism is an important issue in the policy agenda influencing adjustment processes with the EU enlargement of the current members (EU15) and the candidate countries (CC12). The regional integration effects as the deviations from the volume of trade predicted by the baseline gravity model are analyzed in the paper. The empirical results of the study allow us to conclude that the behaviour of bilateral trade flows within the countries involved in the EU eastward enlargement accords to the normal rules of gravitation, having statistically significant spatial biases caused by the trade relations between the Baltic Rim countries (the BR bias) and the border countries (the border bias). The results of the study allow us to prove the preposition that lagged bilateral trade flows are still significant in determining current trade. Past trade linkages adjust rather slowly to the new conditions of the EU eastward enlargement. The Baltic Rim countries' bilateral trade flows are among the countries involved in the EU eastward enlargement on average 2 times larger than trade flows outside the region after controlling for traditional gravitational forces and other regional dummies. The evidence of cross-border trade relations and Baltic Rim regional cooperation is stronger in the current EU members than in the candidate countries. The countries around the Baltic Sea benefit from the integration due to the synergetic effect of non-homogenous entities - the countries on different economic levels and with different historical ties. The lessons of the Baltic Sea region in integrating countries with different economic and political backgrounds are valuable in supporting the EU eastward enlargement and the reintegration of the new member countries into Europe. Keywords: EU enlargement, the Baltic Sea Region, integration, international trade, gravity models JEL: F15, C5, R15

The article presents evidence from the period 1480–1618 in Augsburg suggesting that there were economic constraints on the decisionmaking of the peasant family: (1) Inheritance patterns and village rights offered options to the peasant. These supply side factors helped to promote an integrated labor market in Swabia. (2) Market forces influenced the supply of labor by acting on subsidiary enterprises of the peasant family. The rise of the grain prices and of land forced peasants into auxiliary enterprises to earn cash. (3) Peasant households on small land holdings were vulnerable to harvest failure and consequently did not benefit from the rise in agricultural prices that accrued to holders of larger plots. (4) On the demand side, the structure of production and long-distance trade caused real wages to decline. Within these constraints, the rural community in Swabia became integrated with the urban trading sector in a type of protoindustrialization in which the individual decision makers began to respond to increasingly complex market forces.

The paper focuses on quantitative assessment of the innovation's role in explaining regional disparities and convergence in Europe. The empirical part of the study bases on the regional GDP pc and innovation indicators on the EU-27 NUTS2 level regions. Based on the selected set of initial innovation indicators for the 262 EU NUTS2 level regions and using the principal components factor analysis method, three composite indicators of regional innovation capacity are extracted. They explain around 80 % of the variation of the initial innovation indicators. The preliminary research results show that around 60% of variability of regional GDP per capita is explained by composite indicators of regional innovation performance and additional 20% are country specific factors. Estimating convergence equations, we noticed that regional innovations tend to increase inter-regional differences, at least during the short-run period. Thus, if regional income convergence is a policy target, additional policy measures beside innovation activities should be effectively implemented