The thesis is composed of four broadly related essays. The focus is on Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs), on their production structures and integration with international markets. The first two chapters look at how market liberalisation and opening of the economy shaped the structure and location of economic activity. The fITst chapter studies the spatial distribution of industrial activity in the CEECs since the beginning of transition. Our analysis shows that the detenninants of industrial location in the CEECs are similar to those typical for the EU. The increasing returns to scale industries tend to concentrate in central locations, industries benefit from proximity to industrial consumers (backward linkages) and countries rich in scientists and engineers attract R&D intensive industries. The second chapter analyses the location of economic activity across regions in Poland. The Polish data provides support not only for backward linkages, but also for forward linkages hypothesis, as industries' growth is higher in regions where large concentrations of finns' suppliers are present. In the third and fourth chapters the focus shifts towards the future. The third chapter studies the effects on Poland of the adoption of the EU's Common External Tariff (CET). The analysis indicates that overall impact of the adoption of the CET on Polish imports is modest. In the fourth chapter I employ a computable general equilibrium model to evaluate the impact of the EU accession on Poland, Hungary and the EU-IS. I study the implications of integration into the customs union, adoption of the EU standards and removal of internal borders. The simulations indicate significant welfare gains for Poland and Hungary and modest gains for the EU. The new members are expected to experience production increases across almost all sectors, while the impact on EU production is some sectors is negative, but very small
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:409287 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Maliszewska, Maryla Aleksandra |
| Publisher | University of Sussex |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0019 seconds