This policy note summarises the main findings of our recent research on the effects of labour and corporate taxation on international trade, and discusses their policy implications. The first major finding is that labour taxes do not seem to affect imports, while their effect on exports is...

This article examines trends in population, labour, prices, incomes and consumption across eight Eastern European countries - Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia - between 1950 and 1990. It finds that, despite persistent shortages,...

Why did the socialist system that dominated Eastern European countries for much of the 20th century collapse around 1990? Drawing on the newly released wiiw COMECON Dataset and reports that the wiiw was publishing at that time, we explore whether the collapse was due to unfixable systemic flaws...

This paper presents a detailed analysis of fiscal frameworks across the six Western Balkan economies utilizing a newly compiled dataset based on the European Commission's Fiscal Governance Database. The analysis reveals that although all six Western Balkan countries have implemented some form of...

This study assesses the economic and social impacts of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 17 economies in Central, East and Southeast Europe (CESEE). More precisely, we investigate how different FDI inflows have affected various economic and social indicators, such as GDP growth, labour market...

We study the distributional consequences of COVID-19 by using a stock-flow consistent agent-based model that captures some of the aspects of pandemic-related lockdowns. In particular, the model distinguishes between "essential" and "non-essential" industries, between jobs that can be done from...

Industrial policy has been largely overlooked in the Western Balkans for the past three decades. However, the region's economic struggles and the adoption of smart specialisation strategies have led to renewed interest in the topic. Promising industrial sectors in the Western Balkans include...