NEW EU MEMBER COUNTRIES ARE PHASING OUT LABOR-INTENSIVE ACTIVITIES: AN ECONOMETRIC APPROACH

This paper deals with the process of industrial development that has been unfolding in Central and East-European Countries during the last two decades, with special focus on changes in international specialization induced by successive shifts in comparative advantage. As it was to be expected, these advances have gradually improved the respective countries’ exports structure, the most important mutation residing in the gradual abandoning of subcontracting agreements – mostly confined to assembly-of-imported-inputs – and the expansion of the production of knowledge and human capital-intensive goods and services. European integration has most certainly been acting as a catalyst for this process. However, the group is not moving evenly: Central European economies, belonging to the so-called Vishegrad Group are more advanced in this process as compared to the ones located closer to the Eastern boundary of the European Union such as Romania and Bulgaria.