IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/compes/v60y2018i2d10.1057_s41294-018-0060-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Happened to the Economic Convergence of Central and Eastern Europe After the Global Financial Crisis?

Author

Listed:
  • Anders Åslund

    (Atlantic Council)

Abstract

During the boom years 2000–2007, the new Central and East European (CEE) members of the European Union (EU) had more than twice as high economic growth as the 15 countries that were members of the EU before 2004. From 2010, however, their growth rates have been mediocre though still higher than those of the older EU members. This paper investigates seven structural benchmarks, fiscal burden, tax system, labor markets, education, pensions, governance, and research and development. The CEE countries are continuing to perform quite well in all these regards apart from research and development. Another cause of concern is large emigration. Thus, growth of GDP per capita instead of GDP growth looks much better for the CEE countries. No middle-income trap is apparent.

Suggested Citation

  • Anders Åslund, 2018. "What Happened to the Economic Convergence of Central and Eastern Europe After the Global Financial Crisis?," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 60(2), pages 254-270, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:compes:v:60:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1057_s41294-018-0060-x
    DOI: 10.1057/s41294-018-0060-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41294-018-0060-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41294-018-0060-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tanzi,Vito & Schuknecht,Ludger, 2000. "Public Spending in the 20th Century," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521662918, January.
    2. Aiyar, Shekhar & Duval, Romain & Puy, Damien & Wu, Yiqun & Zhang, Longmei, 2018. "Growth slowdowns and the middle-income trap," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 22-37.
    3. Daron Acemoglu & Suresh Naidu & Pascual Restrepo & James A. Robinson, 2019. "Democracy Does Cause Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(1), pages 47-100.
    4. Kornai, Janos, 1992. "The Postsocialist Transition and the State: Reflections in the Light of Hungarian Fiscal Problems," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(2), pages 1-21, May.
    5. Lindbeck, Assar & Snower, Dennis J, 1986. "Wage Setting, Unemployment, and Insider-Outsider Relations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 235-239, May.
    6. Acemoglu,Daron & Robinson,James A., 2009. "Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521671422, January.
    7. Aslund, Anders & Djankov, Simeon, 2017. "Europe's Growth Challenge," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780190499204.
    8. Martin Raiser & Indermit S. Gill, 2012. "Golden Growth : Restoring the Lustre of the European Economic Model," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6016.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Istvan Konya, 2023. "Catching up or getting stuck: convergence in Eastern European economies," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(2), pages 237-258, June.
    2. Ronny Correa-Quezada & Lucía Cueva-Rodríguez & José Álvarez-García & María de la Cruz del Río-Rama, 2020. "Application of the Kernel Density Function for the Analysis of Regional Growth and Convergence in the Service Sector through Productivity," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-20, July.
    3. Carsten M. Stann & Theocharis N. Grigoriadis, 2020. "Monetary Policy Transmission to Russia and Eastern Europe," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 62(2), pages 303-353, June.
    4. Tommaso Colozza & Emilio Barucci, 2021. "European financial systems through the crisis: Patterns and convergence," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1451-1485, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abeliansky, Ana & Krenz, Astrid, 2015. "Democracy and international trade: Differential effects from a panel quantile regression framework," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 243, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    2. Murtin, Fabrice & Viarengo, Martina, 2008. "The convergence of compulsory schooling in Western Europe: 1950-2000," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 23311, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Sutirtha Bagchi & Matthew J. Fagerstrom, 2023. "Wealth inequality and democracy," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 197(1), pages 89-136, October.
    4. Bautista, M. A. & González, F. & Martínez, L. R. & Muñoz, P. & Prem, M., 2020. "Chile’s Missing Students: Dictatorship, Higher Education and Social Mobility," Documentos de Trabajo 18163, Universidad del Rosario.
    5. World Bank, 2014. "Turkey’s Transitions : Integration, Inclusion, Institutions," World Bank Publications - Reports 20691, The World Bank Group.
    6. Gill,Indermit S. & Kharas,Homi, 2015. "The middle-income trap turns ten," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7403, The World Bank.
    7. Aidt, Toke S. & Albornoz, Facundo & Gassebner, Martin, 2018. "The golden hello and political transitions," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 157-173.
    8. Wei Liang & Heng-fu Zou, 2024. "Endogenous Constitutional Democracy Capital and Economic Development," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 25(2), pages 501-549, November.
    9. Sezer Yasar & Ceyhun Elgin, 2024. "Democracy and fiscal-policy response to COVID-19," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 198(1), pages 25-45, January.
    10. Olayinka Oyekola & Lotanna E. Emediegwu & Jubril Olayinka Animashaun, 2023. "Commodity windfalls, political regimes, and environmental quality," Discussion Papers 2306, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
    11. Fabrice Murtin & Martina Viarengo, 2007. "The convergence process of compulsory schooling in Western Europe: 1950-2000," PSE Working Papers halshs-00588053, HAL.
    12. Williams, Kevin, 2024. "Remittances and government expenditures on human capital in developing countries," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    13. Park, Hyungmin, 2023. "Developmental Dictatorship and Middle Class-driven Democratisation," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1485, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    14. Kammas, Pantelis & Sarantides, Vassilis, 2019. "Do dictatorships redistribute more?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 176-195.
    15. Alberto Batinti & Joan Costa‐Font & Timothy J. Hatton, 2022. "Voting Up? The Effects of Democracy and Franchise Extension on Human Stature," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(353), pages 161-190, January.
    16. Thomas Apolte, 2022. "A theory of autocratic transition by government leaders: prerequisites to self-enforcing democracy," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 161-189, June.
    17. Bougharriou, Nouha & Benayed, Walid & Gabsi, Foued Badr, 2019. "The democracy and economic growth nexus: Do FDI and government spending matter? Evidence from the Arab world," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 13, pages 1-29.
    18. Ignazio Drudi & Giorgio Tassinari & Fabrizio Alboni, 2017. "Changes in wealth distribution in Italy (2002-2012) and who gained from the Great Recession," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 70(281), pages 129-153.
    19. Xinyi Wang & Na Hou & Bo Chen, 2023. "Democracy, military expenditure and economic growth: A heterogeneous perspective," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(8), pages 1039-1070, November.
    20. Ghosh, Sugata & Mitra, Anirban, 2022. "Ethnic identities, public spending and political regimes," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 256-279.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Central and Eastern Europe; European Union; Economic growth; Structural reform; Demography;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • O52 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe
    • P10 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - General
    • P35 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Public Finance
    • P51 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:compes:v:60:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1057_s41294-018-0060-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.