This chapter revisits the scholarship on life satisfaction in Eastern Europe. We first look at the broader drivers of life satisfaction identified in the literature. Then, we discuss the 'happiness gap' in Eastern Europe - the observed difference between the self-declared happiness of residents...

The process of transition and growth in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) provides interesting insights, considering the countries' historical relationship with the Soviet Union. The 20 years after the Eastern enlargement of the European Union show an integrative power within the Single Market....

Understanding the structural change in catching-up regions and the spatial distribution of economic sectors is essential for designing comprehensive policy strategies to promote balanced economic development. This study examines the economic restructuring of the 11 central and eastern European...

Past trauma resulting from personal life shocks, especially during periods of particular volatility, such as regime transition (or regime change), can give rise to significant long-lasting effects on people's health and well-being. We study this question by drawing on longitudinal and...

Entrepreneurship is deeply rooted in tradition and culture in many countries; however, transitional market economies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) underwent 40-45 years of socialism, which disrupted these traditions by collectivising private property. Education is recognised as a key tool...

This paper conducts a comparative meta-analysis using 3,098 estimates reported in 125 research works to explore the wage–experience profile in China and Eastern Europe as they experience a systemic transformation from the planned system to a market economy. The results indicate that the...

Twenty years have passed since the first eastern enlargements of the European Union (EU). This paper assesses the impacts of EU accession on agriculture and rural regions of Central and Eastern European countries and identifies the reasons behind differences in country performance. Results...

Understanding the structural change in catching-up regions and the spatial distribution of economic sectors is essential for designing comprehensive policy strategies to promote balanced economic development. This study examines the economic restructuring of the 11 central and eastern European...

The capital markets are sensitive to geopolitical events. It is important to provide evidence of reactions to specific geopolitical events in order to identify general patterns and effective risk management strategies. This study follows the event study approach to assess the reactions of...

Past trauma resulting from personal life shocks, especially during periods of particular volatility such as regime transition (or regime change), can give rise to significant long-lasting effects on people's health and well-being. We study this question by drawing on longitudinal and...

The economic situation of farms is determined by a number of factors, which have been widely described in the literature. One factor is market integration, which shapes the farmer's position in the food supply chain. The involvement of farmers in the integration may be related to their social...

In recent years, the focus on state-owned enterprises (SOE) has returned. SOEs are an important part of the post-socialist countries that comprise Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). However, there are still no consistent findings on SOEs’ performance and dividend payouts, although the popular...

The Draghi Report recommended actions to secure the long-term EU competitive position but did not discuss the challenges related to specific countries or regional groups, including those of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. While CEE economies remain focused on manufacturing,...

EU enlargement has stalled since the last member joined over ten years ago, marking the longest period without expansion since 1973. This elapsed time contrasts with the potential income gains membership promises. Drawing on the biggest EU enlargement in 2004 and employing a synthetic...

This paper examines the state of innovation in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern EU countries. Despite increased innovation capacity, the region faces significant challenges threatening its growth and competitiveness, including severe skills shortages, uneven productivity, and barriers to...

This paper examines how trade liberalization-induced labor demand shocks affect wages and non-wage working conditions. Using exogenous trade shocks from EU enlargement and worker-level data, we find that export liberalization increases temporary contracts and atypical work schedules,...

This edition of the Macro Poverty Outlooks periodical contains country-by-country forecasts and overviews for GDP, fiscal, debt and poverty indicators for the developing countries of Europe and Central Asia. Macroeconomic indicators such as population, gross domestic product and gross domestic...

This study estimates the impact of public debt on public investment in Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies. We implement Cross-sectionally Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) model, which effectively handles cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity, while...

This chapter revisits the scholarship on life satisfaction in Eastern Europe. We first look at the broader drivers of life satisfaction identified in the literature. Then, we discuss the 'happiness gap' in Eastern Europe - the observed difference between the self-declared happiness of residents...

The EU provides technical and legislative support for creating good conditions for civil society organizations and funding opportunities for this sector within countries. A significant contribution is visible in the CEE countries, mainly in the states of the Visegrad group, that are the most...

Revolutions in 1989' and later reforms in V4 countries started development of civil society, however, historical context, attitudes and characteristics of transition economies differ among these countries. The aim of this research is to analyse socio-economic characteristics and explain patterns...

The CEE4 countries are among the most internationalized economies in the EU. Due to their high dependence on foreign final demand, particularly in the automotive sector, their labor markets are closely linked to the dynamics of the global economy. Therefore, the main objective of this study is...

This paper identifies and analyzes the trends and patterns in consumption differences between Eastern and Western European households from 2000 to 2021. Using clustering methods and regression analysis, it examines consumer spending patterns and convergence processes, focusing on how household...

This paper analyzes business cycle synchronization and the Phillips curve (PC) relationship in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European (CESEE) economies relative to the euro area. We find an overall increase in business cycle synchronicity, particularly among Euro adoption candidates, with...

Business dynamism and economic growth in Europe and Central Asia have weakened since the late 2000s, with productivity growth driven largely by resource reallocation between firms and sectors rather than innovation. To move up the value chain, countries need to facilitate technology adoption,...

We compare inequality and social mobility trends in Eastern European countries exposed to Soviet Communist (SC) regimes with those not exposed, using similar welfare measures. We draw upon a rich retrospective dataset that collects relevant welfare measures across regimes including information...

This study explores the heterogeneous and asymmetric macro-financial effects of climate change in CESEE countries, depending on the level of underlying macrofinancial vulnerabilities. Focusing solely on acute physical risks - those arising from extreme weather events - it employs panel quantile...