The gravity model of trade is used to assess the economic consequences of new borders, which arose in the wake of break-ups of multinational federations in Eastern Europe. The intensity of trade relations among the constituent parts of Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union and the Baltics was very high...

In this paper we review the developments of prices in the Central and Eastern European EU accession countries between 1990 and 2001. The paper starts with an analysis of the short-term and long-term (dis)inflation dynamics. This is complemented by an appraisal of price level convergence. The...

The aim of the paper is to analyse the factors behind the rapid trade integration of the Central and Eastern European countries with the euro area in the past ten years and to gauge the potential for further integration. We use as benchmark an enhanced gravity model estimated with a large sample...

Foreign currency loans represent an important feature of recent financial developments in CEECs. This might pose a serious challenge for macroeconomic stability. Against this background, the authors study the determinants of foreign currency loans of households, using data on the behavior of...

Given recent adverse developments, widespread foreign currency borrowing in CEECs poses a serious challenge for financial stability. Against this background, we use survey data to study the determinants of loan arrears of private households. Our data confirm a non-negligible impact of foreign...

We study how firms' individual credit market experience influences their beliefs about the bank lending policy, using the Austrian Business Survey between 2011 and 2016. Firms which have recently experienced a loan rejection are more likely to believe that the lending policy is restrictive. We...

The onset of the war on drugs in Mexico at the beginning of 21st century had far-reaching effects on its citizens, including most obviously, an unprecedented increase in the homicide rate. We analyse the correlation between violence on social capital in the 32 federal states of Mexico from...

This paper focuses on human capital and physical capital of households in Slovakia during the economic reforms of the last two decades. We compare households who entered the labor market before and after the economic reforms in 1990. On the one hand, we study the returns to education by...

The current crisis raises the question whether loans to SMEs in emerging markets areinherently more risky. We use a unique unbalanced panel of nearly 700 loans made toSMEs in Slovakia between 2000 and 2005. Several probit and panel probit models showthat liquidity and profitability factors are...