Graph of the month Europe Brent Spot Price, fob per barrel, in current USD and euro and real year 2005 euro (p. 1) Opinion corner Russia-Ukraine conflict do Western sanctions have any effect? (by Vasily Astrov, Vladimir Gligorov, Peter Havlik, Michael Landesmann and Olga Pindyuk; pp. 2-6)...

Graph of the month Share of foreign value added in the exports of selected countries Opinion corner What might be the economic consequences of a potential territorial break-up of Ukraine? (by Vasily Astrov) Trade integration, vertical specialisation and employment growth in the new Member States...

Summary Fundamental changes in the global trade landscape in terms of considerably expanding trade volumes and rapidly advancing global fragmentation of production processes have opened up new opportunities for many economies. The ensuing analysis determines whether these new opportunities have...

Graph of the month Inequalities in hourly earnings at PPP measured by the Gini index, 2002-2010 (p. 1) Opinion corner Presidential election in Romania will the new broom sweep cleaner? (by Gábor Hunya; pp. 2-3) Earnings levels, inequality and coverage rates of collective agreements (by Sebastian...

While up to the 1990s, R&D was still ‘an important case of non-globalization’ (Patel and Pavitt 1991), the internationalization of business R&D activities has accelerated significantly during the past two decades. R&D activities of foreign affiliates have become one of the most dynamic...

Trade and economic integration in the CIS an evaluation (by Vasily Astrov, Peter Havlik and Olga Pindyuk; pp. 1-3) Keywords trade, economic integration Countries covered CIS Topics International Trade, Competitiveness and FDI Volume and variety of intra-bloc trade in an expanded European Union...

In the course of tapping into external funding sources, innovators frequently encounter binding and insurmountable financing constraints, prompting them to discontinue, postpone or altogether abandon some of their innovative efforts, a key source of their growth and survival. This is even more...

During economic downturns, labour hoarding becomes an attractive human resource strategy if sizeable search and training costs render hiring and training new workers too costly. The paper sheds light on the prevalence and extent of labour hoarding in five New EU Member States and Turkey during...

Real economic convergence within the EU (by Rumen Dobrinsky; pp. 1- 5) Keywords convergence, panel regressions Countries covered European Union Topics Macroeconomic Analysis and Policy R&D and non-R&D innovators in the financial crisis the role of binding credit constraints (by Sandra M. Leitner...

Financial balances of the private, foreign and public sectors long-term tendencies for the European Union (by Roman Römisch; pp. 1-6) Keywords fiscal policy, budget deficits, investments and savings, public-private balances Countries covered European Union Topics Macroeconomic Analysis and...