The competitiveness of Polish manufacturing export on the EU market in the years 2004-2006

This article aims to determine the levels and bases of competitiveness of Polish exports of industrial products in the Common Market on the background of selected countries. The results of the analysis carried out by Constant Market Share, applied to the decomposition of the growth of Polish exports, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary to the EU market during the period 2004-2006 indicated that Poland became a (toogether with Czech Republic), a leader in terms of structure and level of competitiveness in the EU market for industrial goods. The main source of growth in exports of Polish on the EU market during the period was the increase in the competitiveness of exported goods to this market. In addition, a systematic increase in Polish exports in 2004-2006 was due to positive changes in the commodity structure of Polish. Products that generate the greatest positive effect of competition in the period were the same for all countries analyzed. Among these were the most technologically advanced departments, such as machinery and mechanical appliances, electrical machinery and equipment and vehicles other than railway. Matrix analysis of competitiveness Polish, Czech, Hungary and Slovakia to the EU market in 2004-2006 pointed to the strongly increasing the effectiveness of Polish exports of industrial goods of high quality, with a dominant but ineffective form of price competition on the EU market. In 2006, Poland has the EU market a positive trade balance in the category of high-quality industrial goods, which may indicate emerging, new, effective form of competition on the EU marketexport, competitiveness, poland,

THE CONCEPTS OF SPECIALISATION AND SPATIAL CONCENTRATION AND THE PROCESS OF ECONOMIC INTEGRATION: THEORETICAL RELEVANCE AND STATISTICAL MEASURES. THE CASE OF ROMANIA’S REGIONS

The issues of specialisation and spatial concentration are important to economic policy and to the competitiveness of the European Union for several reasons. The literature on trade theory concerning economic integration provides different perspectives on the evolution of specialisation and spatial concentration. Both issues have been analysed in the theoretical literature as related economic concepts, but additional empirical research is needed for a better understanding of these phenomena. The purpose of the paper is both methodological and descriptive. First, we display the theoretical literature on trade, which emphasises the role played by economic integration at national level. Second, we try to see which of the trade theories best explains the regional structure of employment in terms of specialisation and spatial concentration. We apply our methodology to a specific case: Romania's development regions and their employment structure. Therefore, regional specialisation and geographical concentration are defined in relation to production structures.specialisation, spatial concentration, trade theories, economic integration, Romania’s development regions.

Peripherality and Integration: Industrial Growth and Decline in the Greek Regions

An empirical model has been deployed to account for regional industrial growth and performance in Greece’s post EU-accession period. The results obtained suggest that the effect of European integration on manufacturing has been rather adverse across Greek regions. Regions that are more industrialised, whose structure was more similar to the European average and which have been more exposed to European competition are those that have been more adversely affected. In contrast, higher diversity, higher presence of capital intensive sectors and higher tertiarisation of the regional economies were found to be beneficial to regional industrial growth and performance.

HOW DOES SECTOR CONCENTRATION EVOLVE AT COUNTRY AND REGION LEVELS? THE EUROPEAN CASE

This paper analyzes the evolution of the three main economic sectors – agriculture, industry and services – at the level of European countries and regions. We base our analysis on the Theil index constructed using European gross value added data for 23 EU countries and compare it to regional data for a ten-year period (from 1995 to 2004). Our results show that the most difficult challenges posed by the unequal concentration in the main sectors appear at the wider region not the country level. It will therefore be necessary to devise new regional policies that take into account these disparities.sectors analysis, spatial concentration, European regions, Theil index, integration

Efficiency and Effectiveness of Social Spending

In this qualitative sociological and quantitative economic policy paper, we start out from the assumption of a very recent European Commission Background paper on the “Efficiency and effectiveness of social spending”, which says the effectiveness of social spending can be defined by the degree to which the realized allocation approaches the socially desired outcome. The conclusions listed in the Commission paper are found far reaching and not supported by the empirical data. We perform such an analysis, starting from advances in recent literature. A more encompassing sociological perspective on the issue and factor analytical calculations is presented, which supports our general argument about the efficiency of the Scandinavian model. The social quality approach provides an alternative perspective on welfare system analysis, focusing on public policies rather than social policies. The empirical evidence, suggests that in terms of the efficiency of the European social model, the geography of comparative performance include: the direct action against social exclusion, health and family social expenditures, the neo-liberal approach, and the unemployment benefit centred approach. Applying rigorous comparative social science methodology, we also arrive at the conclusion that in terms of the initial ECOFIN definition of efficiency, the data presented in this article suggest that apart from Finland and the Netherlands, three new EU-27 member countries, especially the Czech Republic and Slovenia, provide interesting answers to the question about the efficiency of state expenditures in reducing poverty rates.social spending, European Commission, index numbers and aggregation, cross-sectional models, spatial models, economic integration, regional economic activity, international factor movements, nternational political economy

Measurement of Specialization – The Choice of Indices

This paper compares nine common specialization indices, discussing their properties, strengths and weaknesses. In order to unravel the differences between the indices they are applied to European employment structures in 2005, spanning 51 industries and 24 European countries. The resulting heterogeneity levels differ largely between relative and absolute specialization measures, but also within these two groups of indices. As results are highly dependent on which measure is employed, it is important to be aware of carefully choosing appropriate indices in empirical studies in order to attain appropriate conclusions and conduct sound economic policy.specialization indices, industry structure, comparison of indices

Tendencies in the Romania's Regional Economic Development during the Period 1991-2004

The objective of this paper represents the analysis of the way the Romania's economic integration in the EU will influence the regional specialization and industrial activities localization within NUTS (the eight regions of Romania) during the period 1991-2004, using absolute measures (Herfindahl index).regional specialization, geographic concentration, panel data, fixed effect model, random effect model

Economic Integration and Productive Specialization in the EU27: does FDI influence Countries' Specialization?

Economic Integration and Productive Specialization in the EU27: does FDI influence Countries' Specialization?

Industrial specialisation and geographic concentration: Two sides of the same coin? Not for the European Union

Some recent studies have shown that specialisation of countries has tended to increase, while regional concentration of countries has tended to decrease. This seems to be counterintuitive at first glance. In this paper, we use the entropy index - as the indicator of structural change with the neatest aggregation properties to show how this divergence can happen. The main purpose of the paper is methodological, but we also apply the methodology to a specific case study: Manufacturing in the European Union since 1985. We confirm for this interesting period that increasing industrial specialisation has been offset by faster growth in the smaller Member States, with the net effect that industries have become somewhat less geographically concentrated. In terms of economic geography the evidence is in line with the second part of the inverted U-curve (where decreasing transport costs eventually foster de-concentration). This is no contradiction to increasing specialisation of countries in specific industries as predicted by many models in the old as well as the new trade theory.structural change, geographical concentration, industrial specialisation, European integration, entropy