Structural features of economic integration in an enlarged Europe: patterns of catching-up and industrial specialisation

This paper discusses the evolution of competitiveness, industrial and trade specialisation in the manufacturing sector of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs). It is shown that the paths taken by the different CEECs have been quite diverse and we attempt to apply a combination of a catching-up plus trade specialisation model which is required to understand the patterns of specialisation emerging in Central and Eastern Europe.structural change, international specialisation, catching-up, convergence, central and eastern europe, eu enlargement, international integration, labour markets, Landesmann

Which Growth Model for Central and Eastern Europe after the Crisis?

This Policy Brief discusses the growth prospects of the Central and Eastern European (CEEC) region following the current economic crisis. It argues that the 'integration model of growth' of the CEEC region was characterised by a very high degree of external liberalisation. In one group of economies (mostly the Central European economies) the model turned out to be successful in that it did not generate strong structural imbalances (in trade and current accounts and in growing private sector savings-investment gaps) prior to the crisis. This was quite different in the other group (mostly the Baltic states and the countries in Southeastern Europe, SEE) where unsustainable imbalances developed in part traced back to historical weaknesses of the tradable sectors and in part to choices of exchange rate regimes, to the importance of remittances and to missing instruments to deal with cross-border financial market integration. The analysis suggests a number of factors which will characterise post-crisis condi-tions in CEECs (such as increased savings rates of the household sector, deleveraging, more restricted fiscal pol-icy space, etc.) and in external factors (lower growth in the most important Western European export markets, more difficult effective entry conditions to the EMU, etc.) and discusses an adjusted policy agenda.Finanzkrise, Konjunkturzyklus, Stabilisierungspolitik, Krisenfestigkeit

Income Distribution, Technical Change and the Dynamics of International Economic Integration

This paper explores the features of a dynamic multisectoral model which focuses on the relationship between income distribution, growth and international specialization. The model is explored both for the steady- state properties and the transitory dynamics of integrated economies. Income inequality affects the patterns of growth and international specialization as the model uses non-linear Engel curves and hence different income groups are characterized by different expenditure patterns. At the same time income distribution is also reflected in the relative wage rates of skilled to unskilled workers, i.e. the skill premium, and hence the wage structure affects comparative costs of industries which have different skill intensities. The model is applied to a situation which analyses qualitatively different economic development strategies of catching-up economies (a 'Latin American' scenario and a 'South East Asian' scenario).income distribution, growth, international economic integration, catching-up, international specialization

Which Growth Model for Central and Eastern Europe after the Crisis?

This Policy Brief discusses the growth prospects of the Central and Eastern European (CEEC) region following the current economic crisis. It argues that the 'integration model of growth' of the CEEC region was characterised by a very high degree of external liberalisation. In one group of economies (mostly the Central European economies) the model turned out to be successful in that it did not generate strong structural imbalances (in trade and current accounts and in growing private sector savings-investment gaps) prior to the crisis. This was quite different in the other group (mostly the Baltic states and the countries in Southeastern Europe, SEE) where unsustainable imbalances developed in part traced back to historical weaknesses of the tradable sectors and in part to choices of exchange rate regimes, to the importance of remittances and to missing instruments to deal with cross-border financial market integration. The analysis suggests a number of factors which will characterise post-crisis condi-tions in CEECs (such as increased savings rates of the household sector, deleveraging, more restricted fiscal pol-icy space, etc.) and in external factors (lower growth in the most important Western European export markets, more difficult effective entry conditions to the EMU, etc.) and discusses an adjusted policy agenda

Government policies and financial crises: Mitigation, postponement or prevention?

In the aftermath of the Great Recession governments have implemented several policy measures to counteract the collapse of the financial sector and the downswing of the real economy. Within a framework of Minsky-Veblen cycles, where relative consumption concerns, a debt-led growth regime and financial sector confidence constitute the main causes of economic fluctuations, we use computer simulations to assess the effectiveness of such measures. We find that the considered policy measures help to mitigate the impact of financial crises, though they do so at the cost of shortening the time between the initial financial crisis and the next. This result is due to an increase in solvency and confidence induced by the policy-measures under study, which contribute to an increase in private credit and, thereby, increases effective demand. Our results suggest that without a strengthening of financial regulation any policy intervention remains incomplete

Whither growth in central and eastern Europe? Policy lessons for an integrated Europe

In this Blueprint, Bruegel Resident Fellows Zsolt Darvas, Jean Pisani-Ferry, André Sapir and their co-authors Torbjörn Becker, Daniel Daianu, Vladimir Gligorov, Michael A Landesmann, Pavle Petrovic, Dariusz K. Rosati and Beatrice Weder di Mauro argue that in view of the depth of integration in Europe, the development model of the central, eastern and south-eastern Europe (CESEE) region, despite its shortcomings, should be preserved. But it should be reformed, with major implications for policymaking both at national and EU levels. If so, what are the required changes? Bruegel and The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) cooperated to form this expert group of economists from various European countries to research these issues.

Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers

© 2020 The Authors. Journal of Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society Fire is a powerful ecological and evolutionary force that regulates organismal traits, population sizes, species interactions, community composition, carbon and nutrient cycling and ecosystem function. It also presents a rapidly growing societal challenge, due to both increasingly destructive wildfires and fire exclusion in fire-dependent ecosystems. As an ecological process, fire integrates complex feedbacks among biological, social and geophysical processes, requiring coordination across several fields and scales of study. Here, we describe the diversity of ways in which fire operates as a fundamental ecological and evolutionary process on Earth. We explore research priorities in six categories of fire ecology: (a) characteristics of fire regimes, (b) changing fire regimes, (c) fire effects on above-ground ecology, (d) fire effects on below-ground ecology, (e) fire behaviour and (f) fire ecology modelling. We identify three emergent themes: the need to study fire across temporal scales, to assess the mechanisms underlying a variety of ecological feedbacks involving fire and to improve representation of fire in a range of modelling contexts. Synthesis: As fire regimes and our relationships with fire continue to change, prioritizing these research areas will facilitate understanding of the ecological causes and consequences of future fires and rethinking fire management alternatives

Fire as a fundamental ecological process: Research advances and frontiers

© 2020 The Authors.Fire is a powerful ecological and evolutionary force that regulates organismal traits, population sizes, species interactions, community composition, carbon and nutrient cycling and ecosystem function. It also presents a rapidly growing societal challenge, due to both increasingly destructive wildfires and fire exclusion in fire‐dependent ecosystems. As an ecological process, fire integrates complex feedbacks among biological, social and geophysical processes, requiring coordination across several fields and scales of study. Here, we describe the diversity of ways in which fire operates as a fundamental ecological and evolutionary process on Earth. We explore research priorities in six categories of fire ecology: (a) characteristics of fire regimes, (b) changing fire regimes, (c) fire effects on above‐ground ecology, (d) fire effects on below‐ground ecology, (e) fire behaviour and (f) fire ecology modelling. We identify three emergent themes: the need to study fire across temporal scales, to assess the mechanisms underlying a variety of ecological feedbacks involving fire and to improve representation of fire in a range of modelling contexts. Synthesis: As fire regimes and our relationships with fire continue to change, prioritizing these research areas will facilitate understanding of the ecological causes and consequences of future fires and rethinking fire management alternatives.Support was provided by NSF‐DEB‐1743681 to K.K.M. and A.J.T. We thank Shalin Hai‐Jew for helpful discussion of the survey and qualitative methods.Peer reviewe

Nicholas Kaldor and Kazimierz Łaski on the pitfalls of the European integration process

Nicholas Kaldor and Kazimierz Łaski have been two very prominent exponents of Keynesian thinking. They both contributed to the debate on European economic integration, one (Nicholas Kaldor) in the early 1970s, when there were fierce debates about the United Kingdom's entry to the European Communities, and the other (Kazimierz Łaski) in the wake of the financial and economic crisis of 2008–2012, when the European Union and its Economic and Monetary Union were seriously challenged by potential disintegration. Both exponents provided deep and complementary inputs into an understanding of the centrifugal forces at work when a region with a rudimentary federal structure (but an extremely weak 'central state') embarks on tight economic integration with an inadequate macroeconomic policy framework in place