The Emerging Economic Geography in EU Accession Countries

This title was first published in 2003. Since 1990, Central and Eastern European countries have experienced increased economic integration with the European Union. The spatial implications of this process have been little investigated so far. Have patterns of regional specialization and industrial concentration changed during the 1990s? How does regional specialization relate to economic performance? How has access to Western markets affected the regional wage structure? What types of regions are winners and what types of regions are losers? This book poses and answers such policy relevant questions. It is organized into three parts. The first introduces the main features of economic integration and transition processes in Central and Eastern Europe and discusses the theoretical and methodological framework of the research. The second part examines the cases of five countries: Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia, and the final part includes three comparative analyses which explain the underlying factors that determine the changing patterns of location of manufacturing activity, the adjustment pattern of regional wages and adaptation processes in border regions in the five countries.

Contents: Part I: Analytical Framework: Spatial implications of economic integration in EU accession countries, Laura Resmini and Iulia Traistaru; European integration, regional specialization and location of industrial activity: a survey of theoretical and empirical literature, Peter Nijkamp, Laura Resmini and Iulia Traistaru; Data and measurement, Iulia Traistaru and Anna Iara. Part II: Country Studies: The emerging economic geography in Bulgaria, Julia Spiridonova; The emerging economic geography in Estonia, Grigory Fainshtein and Natalie Lubenets; The emerging economic geography in Hungary, Alessandro Maffioli; The emerging economic geography in Romania, Iulia Traistaru and Carmen Pauna; The emerging economic geography in Slovenia, Joze P. Damijan and Èrt Kostevc. Part III: Comparative Analysis and Lessons: Specialization of regions and concentration of industries in EU accession countries, Iulia Traistaru, Peter Nijkamp and Simonetta Longhi; The impact of European integration on the adjustment pattern of regional wages in accession countries, Joze P. Damijan and Èrt Kostevc; The implications of European integration and adjustment for border regions in accession countries, Laura Resmini; The emerging economic geography in EU accession countries: concluding remarks and policy implications, Iulia Traistaru, Peter Nijkamp and Laura Resmini; Index.

Iulia Traistaru is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI) at the University of Bonn, Germany. Peter Nijkamp is a Professor within the Department of Spatial Economics at the Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Laura Resmini is a Lecturer at the Institute of Economics at the University "Luigi Bocconi", Milan, Italy.