This paper estimates a labor demand equation based on the panel data of manufacturing industry in the Central and Eastern European Countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Romania) in order to test the effect of domestic factors (wages and output) and international factors (exports, imports, and FDI) on employment during the era of post -transition recovery. The findings indicate that employment does not respond to wages in more than half of the cases. The output elasticity of labor demand is mostly positive, but low, with a number of cases where employment is completely de-linked from output. An impressive speed of integration to the European economic sphere through FDI and international trade has not prevented job losses in the manufacturing industry. While there are very few cases of positive effects, insignificant effects of trade and FDI dominate the findings with some evidence of negative effects as well. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Die Arbeit befasst sich mit den Auswirkungen der Ostöffnung auf Grenzregionen entlang des ehemaligen Eisernen Vorhangs. Hierbei wird besonders auf die Veränderungen am Arbeitsmarkt eingegangen. Die grundlegende Hypothese war, dass es in den betrachteten Regionen aufgrund des externen Schocks zu einem Aufbrechen der vorhandenen Strukturen kommt. Hierbei wurde auch angenommen, dass die Regionen diesseits und jenseits des Eisernen Vorhangs jeweils unterschiedliche Auswirkungen zeigen würden, aufgrund der unterschiedlichen Ausgangslage. Die betrachteten Regionen wurden mithilfe einer Clusteranalyse in mehrere Kategorien eingeteilt. Hierbei wurden deutliche Unterschiede zwischen den Regionen der alten und neuen EU-Mitgliedländer festgestellt. Auch konnte in den österreichischen Regionen die neue Situation offensichtlich besser genutzt werden als in den deutschen Regionen. Besonders prägnant war der Einfluss der Grossregion Wien-Bratislava. (Autorenref.)

We investigate the role of leasing in the lending boom in Central and South Eastern Europe (CEE and SEE). We contribute by (1) providing a full picture of the financing situation in Eastern Europe, where leasing plays a more important role than elsewhere; (2) by investigating the finance-growth-nexus for ten Eastern European countries with a panel data approach over 1999-2006; (3) by extending the production function approach (credit, stock, bond) and the law-and-financeview for leasing. We find that leasing and credit positively contributed to economic growth. However, leasing and credit are complements and not substitutes as suggested partly by previous research in other regions. We conclude that leasing cannot be used to circumvent proper regulation by policy makers or market participants, and that alternative forms of finance need to be included for a full picture of the finance-growth link. / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

The aim of this paper is to analyze the fragility of the New Member States and accession countries in the Central Eastern and South Eastern European countries (henceforth Eastern Europe) to the turbulences in the global economy and the changes in the direction of the international capital flows. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

A bulk of empirical literature has emerged that explores the role of various location factors as determinants of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). A notable feature of these studies is that their empirical approaches abstract from third-country (spatial) effects in FDI across the home and host country dimensions. Neglecting these effects could bias results concerning the role of location factors for attracting FDI. This in turn may lead to misguided economic policy conclusions. The current paper adds to the literature by applying the recently proposed spatial "origin-destinationow model" of LeSage and Pace (2008) to FDI ows from 7 Western OECD home countries to 8 CEE host countries. Controlling for country-pair and time effects our results indicate that (a) spatial interactions across the host country dimension matter for FDI revealing that vertical complex FDI ows dominate total FDI ows to CEECs; (b) spatial autocorrelation in the home country dimension is absent; (c) results of previous studies remain valid as coefficient estimates on location factors change only slightly when spatial interdependencies are considered and (d) effective corporate income taxes and the endowment with production-related material infrastruc- ture are statistically and economically signifficant determinants of FDI in CEECs. (author's abstract) / Series: Discussion Papers SFB International Tax Coordination

This doctoral thesis addresses in a sequence of five essays the question how fiscal policy and economic output are interrelated in emerging Europe and how this relationship is shaped by the respective politico-economic environment and the individual-level support for economic reforms. Following main findings can be highlighted: (1) Countries in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) respond to a fiscal expansion in the euro area with fiscal easing at home, while the GDP response is mixed across countries.(2)Automatic fiscal stabilizers are comparatively small and discretionary fiscal policy has been largely pro-cyclical in CESEE. (3) The public spending and revenue structure is more "growth-friendly" in CESEEthan in the EU-15. (4) In transition economies with more democratic institutions and a better quality of governance, individuals with high market-relevant skills show a significantly larger support of the privatization status quo than individuals with low market skills. (5) The society in Russia - triggered by a lack of social capital - chooses to demand more state regulationand tolerate corruption to reduce negative externalities imposed by private business.(author's abstract)