Credit growth rates as high as 30% or 50% a year were observed in some Central Eastern European countries (CEECs) in 2006-2007, such as the Baltic States, Bulgaria or Romania. This strong credit growth could have been due to the catching-up process but could also have been excessive, paving the...

While the currency board served Estonia well during transition in the 1990s, it has limited its ability to counter the impact of the global financial crisis and heightened the currency risks. The euro adoption has thus become a top policy priority again. However, this paper finds that even after...

This paper investigates the performance differences across and within foreign-owned firms and domestic multinationals in Italy. Used for the empirical analysis are non-parametric tests based on the concept of first order stochastic dominance and quantile regression technique. The firm-level...

The paper is aimed at studying the absolute and conditional convergence in the Central and Eastern European countries. Given that these countries have common roots and their economies have experienced similar challenges over time, the regional convergence in the CEE region might be seen as an...

This paper studies the evolution of the foreign trade specialization in manufacturing sectors of South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt. These four countries, the so-called SANE, have recently been viewed as Africa’s best chance of producing an economic bloc whose role for Africa might be...

The success of the integration process of the new EU Member States is reflected by their nominal and real convergence performance. These tendencies are of special importance considering further enlargement of the Eurozone. The financial and economic crisis of 2008 has resulted, however, in a...

Angus Maddison's contribution to the analysis of long-run developments in the world economy has been monumental. His continuous cumulative work on an ever expanding data-set of national accounts and his in-depth analysis of changes in the main trends in the world’s economic history has given...

Editors' Introduction to the symposium "Comparing China and India: Structural Change and Development"

The seeming demise of the field of comparative economics as it evolved in the 20th century is often seen as the result of the collapse of the communist economy, which left us with only one economic system, capitalism. Moreover, the old comparative economics has been replaced by the new...