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 paper investigates the gender wage gap in relation to the multi-dimensional human capital measure, asking which human capital components are most valued in the European labour markets. Relying on the Programme of International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) data for seventeen European countries and applying Gelbach (Citation2016) decomposition, we document remarkable cross-country disparities in the returns to different human capital components. The only dimension that consistently and significantly decreases gender wage disparities in all countries is work experience related to a currently occupied position. Numeracy cognitive ability is another strong predictors of the gender wage disparity, while job-specific cognitive and non-cognitive skills reveal weaker than expected association with the gender wage gap. Unlike the studies stressing the decreasing importance of human capital in the gender wage gap assessment, we argue that a narrow definition of human capital may undermine the actual effect of the latter.