Understanding the Long-Term Growth Performance of the East European and CIS Economies

The paper analyses the determinants of long-term economic performance of east European and CIS economies in two periods: 1960-1989 (the era of central planning) and 1990-2005 (the transition to the market economy system). Throughout the 1960s and 1970s economic growth in eastern Europe progressively weakened and during the 1980s most of these economies plunged into a prolonged stagnation or recession, which contributed to the collapse of communism and central planning. The transition from plan to market began with the transformational recession, which persisted until the mid-1990s in eastern Europe, but was longer and deeper in the CIS. Since then, the east European and CIS economies have embarked on a path of strong economic growth. The recovery has been accompanied by a surge in fixed investment, often complemented by large inflows of FDI. Despite robust output growth, however, there has not been - at least so far - a noteworthy recovery in employment. The main feature of the recent strong economic growth in the region has been a remarkable upturn in both labour productivity and total factor productivity. The considerable gains in productive efficiency and rapid technological change were triggered by wide-ranging market reforms and the modernization of the capital stock. Gains in aggregate output per person employed have outpaced by a large margin increases in real GDP per capita. In terms of average productivity and real per capita income levels relative to those of the more developed, industrialized countries, the east European and CIS economies still face a long catching up process.economic growth, East Europe, CIS, transition economies

An Account of Geographic Concentration Patterns in Europe

Using entropy indices and associated bootstrap tests, we describe the distribution of economic sectors across Western European regions over the 1975-2000 period. We decompose sectoral concentration into its within-country and between-country components In addition, we estimate centre-periphery gradients in sectoral location patterns and the impact of EU membership on countries' internal geography. It is found that manufacturing has become gradually more concentrated, although the locational bias towards central locations has become weaker. EU membership has significantly strengthened countries' internal concentration trends in manufacturing as well as market services

An Account of Geographic Concentration Patterns in Europe

Using entropy indices and associated bootstrap tests, we describe the distribution of economic sectors across Western European regions over the 1975-2000 period. We decompose geographic concentration into its within-country and between-country components. In addition, we estimate centre-periphery gradients in sectoral location patterns and the impact of EU membership on countries' internal geography. It is found that manufacturing has become gradually more concentrated, although the locational bias towards central regions has become weaker. Conversely, market services have been relocating towards centrally located regions. EU integration appears to have strengthened countries' internal concentration trends

An Account of Geographic Concentration Patterns in Europe

Using entropy indices and associated bootstrap tests, we describe the distribution of economic sectors across Western European regions over the 1975-2000 period. We decompose sectoral concentration into its within-country and between-country components In addition, we estimate centre-periphery gradients in sectoral location patterns and the impact of EU membership on countries' internal geography. It is found that manufacturing has become gradually more concentrated, although the locational bias towards central locations has become weaker. EU membership has significantly strengthened countries' internal concentration trends in manufacturing as well as market services.

An Account of Geographic Concentration Patterns in Europe

Using entropy indices and associated bootstrap tests, we describe the distribution of economic sectors across Western European regions over the 1975-2000 period. We decompose geographic concentration into its within-country and between-country components. In addition, we estimate centre -periphery gradients in sectoral location patterns and the impact of EU membership on countries' internal geography. It is found that manufacturing has become gradually more concentrated, although the locational bias towards central regions has become weaker. Conversely, market services have been relocating towards centrally located regions. EU integration appears to have strengthened countries' internal concentration trends.geographic concentration; EU regions; centre-periphery gradients; entropy indices; bootstrap inference

Upper limits on the strength of periodic gravitational waves from PSR J1939+2134

The first science run of the LIGO and GEO gravitational wave detectors presented the opportunity to test methods of searching for gravitational waves from known pulsars. Here we present new direct upper limits on the strength of waves from the pulsar PSR J1939+2134 using two independent analysis methods, one in the frequency domain using frequentist statistics and one in the time domain using Bayesian inference. Both methods show that the strain amplitude at Earth from this pulsar is less than a few times $10^{-22}$.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the Proceedings of the 5th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves, Tirrenia, Pisa, Italy, 6-11 July 200

Improving the sensitivity to gravitational-wave sources by modifying the input-output optics of advanced interferometers

We study frequency dependent (FD) input-output schemes for signal-recycling interferometers, the baseline design of Advanced LIGO and the current configuration of GEO 600. Complementary to a recent proposal by Harms et al. to use FD input squeezing and ordinary homodyne detection, we explore a scheme which uses ordinary squeezed vacuum, but FD readout. Both schemes, which are sub-optimal among all possible input-output schemes, provide a global noise suppression by the power squeeze factor, while being realizable by using detuned Fabry-Perot cavities as input/output filters. At high frequencies, the two schemes are shown to be equivalent, while at low frequencies our scheme gives better performance than that of Harms et al., and is nearly fully optimal. We then study the sensitivity improvement achievable by these schemes in Advanced LIGO era (with 30-m filter cavities and current estimates of filter-mirror losses and thermal noise), for neutron star binary inspirals, and for narrowband GW sources such as low-mass X-ray binaries and known radio pulsars. Optical losses are shown to be a major obstacle for the actual implementation of these techniques in Advanced LIGO. On time scales of third-generation interferometers, like EURO/LIGO-III (~2012), with kilometer-scale filter cavities, a signal-recycling interferometer with the FD readout scheme explored in this paper can have performances comparable to existing proposals. [abridged]Comment: Figs. 9 and 12 corrected; Appendix added for narrowband data analysi

An Account of Geographic Concentration Patterns in Europe

Using entropy indices and associated bootstrap tests, we describe the distribution of economic sectors across Western European regions over the 1975-2000 period. We decompose geographic concentration into its within-country and between-country components. In addition, we estimate centre-periphery gradients in sectoral location patterns and the impact of EU membership on countries' internal geography. It is found that manufacturing has become gradually more concentrated, although the locational bias towards central regions has become weaker. Conversely, market services have been relocating towards centrally located regions. EU integration appears to have strengthened countries' internal concentration trends