Does EU Membership Facilitate Convergence? The Experience of the EU's Eastern Enlargement - Volume I

This edited volume analyses how EU membership influenced the convergence process of member countries in the Baltics, Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. It also explores countries that are candidates for future EU membership. The speed of convergence of significant groups of low- and medium-income countries has never been as fast globally as it is today. Contributions by lead researchers of the area explore whether these countries are converging faster than their fundamentals and global trends would suggest because of EU membership, with its much tighter institutional and political anchorage

“The volume is an excellent account of How the EU convergence machine worked For the CEEC. Questions arise: will it continue? why has it stalled with some „older” EU members?”

 

Marek Belka, member of the European Parliament, former PM and Finance Minister of Poland

 

 

"To create greater convergence, we need more integration". This message, conveyed recently by a distinguished European statesman, perfectly reflects the key hypothesis this book discusses. By relevant and balanced synthesis of theory, empirical findings and country experiences, the book provides comprehensive and multi-dimensional insight into all important aspects of the linkages between integration and convergence, a rich material of a value-added to scholars, policymakers and corporate managers. Researchers will particularly value the model-based framework that builds on the various channels through which EU membership influences convergence. For policymakers such as myself, this book serves as a reminder of unique changes and reforms we witnessed and contributed to in the recent past but, more importantly, as an inspiration on how to face and address current challenges, from climate change, ageing to migration.

 

Boris Vujčić, Governor, Croatian National Bank

 

 

"This two-volume study is a truly major contribution to our understanding of key issues related to the convergence of the New Member States of the European Union (EU11) to the frontier. The editors, Michael Landesmann and Istvan Szekely, and authors are among the most experienced analysts in this area and their contributions constitute a veritable tour de force. The focus on economic, institutional and social aspects of convergence, together with their interaction, is very appropriate and provides a rich set of insights into the past evolution and likely future trends. The two volumes are important by providing an in-depth analysis of the convergence of EU11, but their relevance is much broader, including the importance of what I would call the terminal conditions – the possibility of entering the EU – a factor with great effects that cannot be analyzed in the context of other emerging market economies.  The authors identify the weakness of institutions as a major potential limitation on the speed of EU 11 convergence in the future. The EU 11 countries have performed remarkably well and I am hopeful, together with the authors of these two volumes, that these countries will tackle successfully their present and future challenges. The two volumes are a must read for everyone interested in EU11 and emerging market economies in general."

 

Jan Svejnar, Professor of Global Political Economy and Founding Director of the Center on Global Economic Governance at Columbia University, USA.

 

"This two volume collection is a treasure chest of timely information on the accession to the Economic Union (EU) of former Warsaw-Pact nations.  Volume I presents overall analysis of convergence and extensive background information on the new members.  Volume II contains careful analyses of four major linkages among new and old EU members, namely trade, finance, migration, and institutional reform, with a focus on the impacts of interdependencies across countries and their role in convergence.  The authors of the individual chapters are well-known scholars in transition economics and in-country specialists in the topics.  Experts in the field, the editors have compiled scholarship that is invaluable to anyone, researcher and student alike, who is interested in the future prospects for the newly constituted EU.  This two-volume book is a must for academic libraries and the bookshelves of researchers. Students will find much useful information to supplement course materials."

 

John Bonin, Chester D. Hubbard Professor of Economics and Social Science at Wesleyan University

"Economic convergence in Central and Eastern Europe is an absolutely central question for public policy in national but also EU context. This volume provides sound analysis about the long-term trends, especially for the period following the first EU enlargement in 2004. Readers must be pleased to see that the attention of the editors and authors expanded beyond macroeconomics, finance and trade to sensitive issues like migration, corruption and climate as well."

 

László Andor, Former European Commissioner

"What was the impact of the Eastern Enlargement of the European Union regarding the convergence of new and existing members? This is a splendid collection of essays that cover an rich body of national experiences and offer detailed analysis about the main channels through which accession affected convergence. It is required reading for scholars and policy-makers interested in globalization, integration, and transition.”

Nauro F. Campos (Professor of Economics, University College London, and Director, UCL Centre for Comparative Economics)

"From this an informative and interesting volume, readers may learn more than they may have wanted to learn, about the process of convergence of the 11 "transition economies" that became EU members in past years. The main message in the book, perhaps a not surprising one, is that, joining the EU gave the EU11 access to a large market and to a lot of foreign investment. These contributed to their economic "growth". Unfortunately, as the first development economists learned 70 years ago, and as many modern economists forgot, economic growth is not the same thing as developments. Development depends on the existence of institutions that distribute widely the benefits of economic growth. The creation of these institutions is more difficult than the generation of growth because it depends on established local cultural traits. In the EU11 countries, institutional or social development has lagged behind their growth. This is likely to create potential future problems."

Vito Tanzi, former Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF

Michael A Landesmann is Senior Research Associate, former Scientific Director (1996-2016), of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw), and Professor of economics at the Johannes Kepler University, Austria. He has a D.Phil. from Oxford University and taught and researched at Cambridge University’s Department of Applied Economics and Jesus College, Cambridge. His research focuses on international economic integration, industrial structural change, labour markets and migration.

István P. Székely is Honorary Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest, and Principal Adviser at the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs at the European Commission. Before joining the European Commission, he worked at the International Monetary Fund and in the National Bank of Hungary. He has a PhD in economics from the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on financial market and macroeconomic policyissues and on Central and Eastern European economies.