Competitive European Peripheries

Competitive European Peripheries PDF

Author: Heikki Eskelinen

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 3642799558

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Europe's space is in a flux. Earlier cores and peripheries in Europe are experiencing a profound transformation. The driving forces include, amongst others, Western European economic and political integration, and Eastern European transition. We are also witnessing fundamental technological and organisational restructuring of industrial systems. Information technology and telecommunications are rapidly altering the requisites for comparative advantage. Peripherality is being determined more by access to networks than by geographical location. Economies of scale can be attained in distributed networks of production with good access to markets as well as in large agglomerations. Clearly, these changes also call for new perspectives in regional analysis. This book derives its impetus from an Advanced Summer institute in Regional Science which was arranged in Joensuu, Finland, in 1993 under the auspices of the European Regional Science Association. Some of the papers, which were discussed at the institute, were thoroughly revised for the present purpose. In addition, chapters on specific topics were specially written for the volume. In most contributions, the focus is on the Nordic countries and their internal peripheries. They form a particularly interesting case in assessing prospects for the multi-faceted centre-periphery confrontation in Europe.

Capitalist Diversity on Europe's Periphery

Capitalist Diversity on Europe's Periphery PDF

Author: Dorothee Bohle

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2012-08-15

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0801465222

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With the collapse of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance in 1991, the Eastern European nations of the former socialist bloc had to figure out their newly capitalist future. Capitalism, they found, was not a single set of political-economic relations. Rather, they each had to decide what sort of capitalist nation to become. In Capitalist Diversity on Europe's Periphery, Dorothee Bohle and Béla Geskovits trace the form that capitalism took in each country, the assets and liabilities left behind by socialism, the transformational strategies embraced by political and technocratic elites, and the influence of transnational actors and institutions. They also evaluate the impact of three regional shocks: the recession of the early 1990s, the rolling global financial crisis that started in July 1997, and the political shocks that attended EU enlargement in 2004.Bohle and Greskovits show that the postsocialist states have established three basic variants of capitalist political economy: neoliberal, embedded neoliberal, and neocorporatist. The Baltic states followed a neoliberal prescription: low controls on capital, open markets, reduced provisions for social welfare. The larger states of central and eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, and the Czech and Slovak republics) have used foreign investment to stimulate export industries but retained social welfare regimes and substantial government power to enforce industrial policy. Slovenia has proved to be an outlier, successfully mixing competitive industries and neocorporatist social inclusion. Bohle and Greskovits also describe the political contention over such arrangements in Romania, Bulgaria, and Croatia. A highly original and theoretically sophisticated typology of capitalism in postsocialist Europe, this book is unique in the breadth and depth of its conceptually coherent and empirically rich comparative analysis.

Structural Change, Competitiveness and Industrial Policy

Structural Change, Competitiveness and Industrial Policy PDF

Author: Aurora A. C. Teixeira

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-06-20

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 1134683502

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The onset of the global crisis has emphasised the persistence of substantial differences in development and social progress within the euro area. The specific case of countries located in the southern periphery region has come to the centre stage, due to the harsh economic conditions that all these countries have experienced in the recent past. In the aftermath of the American subprime credit bubble, these countries’ high indebtedness raised doubts as to their ability to sustain public finances, with the financial crisis developing and gaining momentum due to the fragilities presented in the economy. To varying degrees of severity, all of these economies have since been forced to introduce strong fiscal tightening programmes in order to achieve fiscal consolidation, which have translated into recession and rising unemployment. This book undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the causes of the crisis in southern European countries, showing that the ‘Achilles heel’ of these economies is rooted in the dismal evolution of productivity and in a specialisation pattern excessively based on the so-called ‘traditional’, low, and low-medium tech industries, which yield low margins, declining export shares and, ultimately, withering international competitiveness. Such evidence suggests that the southern European periphery industrial growth model has reached its limits, demanding a multidimensional policy approach capable of overcoming the magnitude and complexity of the present crisis. Without denying the need to adjust public and private balance sheets, it is argued that finding a sustainable path out of the present problems requires addressing the challenges of productivity growth and competitiveness in the long term.

Competition States on Europe's Periphery

Competition States on Europe's Periphery PDF

Author: Višnja Vukov

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13:

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The thesis deals with the transformations of capitalist states in Europe in the context of increased economic transnationalisation and explores the different strategies that states develop to increase their competitiveness and attract capital, thereby improving the profile of insertion of their economies in the global and regional markets. Starting from the premise that the increased economic integration apparent in market liberalizations, the intensification of trade, the transnationalisation of production and the emergence of transnational financial markets exert pressures on states to reorient their economic and social policies towards the goal of increasing competitiveness and transforming themselves into so-called Competition States, the thesis examines the extent to which this state reorientation has been apparent in Europe and whether it has led to the emergence of unique or varied types of Competition States. The main argument is that, first, pressures for state restructuring vary among European states, with the Eurozone members being much less exposed to the pressures of the international financial markets and thereby much less likely to transform into Competition States and, second, those states that are exposed to such pressures respond in different ways and devise different strategies for increasing competitiveness. Based on the comparative case-studies of the Czech Republic and Slovakia as representatives of the two different types of Competition States, the thesis argues that the choice of these strategies is primarily shaped by the features of the domestic political system - more precisely, the strength or weakness of socio-economic issue divides as the main axis of competition in the political party system - rather than being determined by the position of states in the global or regional division of labour, or by their initial social and economic institutions.

Globalized Peripheries

Globalized Peripheries PDF

Author: Jutta Wimmler

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1783274751

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Globalized Peripheries examines the commodity flows and financial ties within Central and Eastern Europe in order to situate these regions as important contributors to Atlantic trade networks.

Peripheral Europe

Peripheral Europe PDF

Author: Ksenija Vidmar Horvat

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2020-09-29

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1527560120

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This book looks at the financial (2007-2008) and the refugee (2015-present) crises and post-crisis development in the EU. The key argument here is that the (mis)management of these crises has been in part conditioned by the specific course of the Europeanisation which occurred during the integration of the post-socialist East. The enlargement processes ran on the premises of a shared European identity, in effect turning the social contract of the new Europe into a cultural contract. This has resulted in betraying the commitment to core values of democratic development, both East and West. The book specifically studies the impact of the “cultural turn” through the discourse of the transition in the Balkan periphery of the ex-Yugoslavian region. Based on rich theoretical and regionally specific empirical research, it will be of interest to scholars in the fields of EU integration, Eastern European studies, cultural studies, studies of post-socialism, and border studies.

Core-Periphery Patterns across the European Union

Core-Periphery Patterns across the European Union PDF

Author: Adelaide Duarte

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing

Published: 2017-08-25

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 178714948X

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In this new work, Pascariu and Duarte, along with an international group of acclaimed scholars, delve into key challenges currently facing the European Union. They Analyze the effect of peripherality across the EU regions which will be of great interest to those countries and regions facing a process of integration

Policy-Making at the European Periphery

Policy-Making at the European Periphery PDF

Author: Zdravko Petak

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-05-30

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 3319735829

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This book examines Croatia's economic and political transformation over the last 30 years. It brings together the best political scientists, macroeconomists and public finance experts from Croatia to provide an in-depth analysis of the Croatian policy-making context and the impact of Europeanization upon its domestic institutional framework. The second part of the book scrutinizes the political economy context and Croatia's long-term macroeconomic under-performance, especially in comparison to other transition economies. The final part explores sectoral public policies, including cohesion policy, education, health, pensions, and local government. The book offers a unique blend of Croatia's political economy framework and public policy analysis.

The European Periphery and the Eurozone Crisis

The European Periphery and the Eurozone Crisis PDF

Author: Neil Dooley

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-10-30

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 1351691988

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This book provides a new understanding of the eurozone crisis across three of the worst hit cases: Greece, Portugal, and Ireland. In contrast to accounts which stress the ‘immaturity’ of the European ‘periphery’, as well as more critical narratives that understand these countries as victims of German and core ‘economic domination’, this book recognises that individual peripheral countries have followed dramatically different paths to crisis, making it difficult to speak of the eurozone crisis as a single phenomenon. Bringing literature from Comparative Political Economy into dialogue with scholarship on Europeanisation, this book contributes the concept of ‘divergence via Europeanisation’. It explores the much-overlooked ways in which the negotiation of a ‘one size fits all’ project of European financial integration has been generative of precarious patterns of economic growth across Greece, Portugal, and Ireland. The book shows that far from their failure or inability to do so, it has been the European periphery’s attempt to ‘follow the rules’ of European integration that explains their current difficulties. This novel understanding of the eurozone crisis should appeal to students and scholars in International Political Economy, European and European Union Studies, Comparative Political Economy, Irish Politics, Greek Politics, and Portuguese Politics.

Innovation, Agglomeration and Regional Competition

Innovation, Agglomeration and Regional Competition PDF

Author: Charlie Karlsson

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 1849802149

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The rise of globalization has triggered a fundamental rethinking about the role of regions in economic development policy. In this important new book, Karlsson, Johansson and Stough assemble a cast of leading international scholars to unravel the new role for regions and local economic development policy to harness the possibilities unleashed by the forces of globalization. This book contains important new insights and ideas that will be welcomed by both scholars and policymakers. David B. Audretsch, Indiana University, Bloomington, US and WHU, Germany This book provides a state-of-the-art overview of current research on regional competition and co-operation. Developing our current understanding of the new role of regions and their behaviour, this book addresses questions such as: How and why do regions compete? How does competition between border regions operate? Which regions are successful and which regions fail? What are the implications of regional competition in terms of resource allocation, the location of economic activities and the distribution of incomes? The book illuminates a number of critical theoretical end empirical issues relating to the competitive and cooperative nature of regions, as well as highlighting a number of new case studies from a variety of countries. The book will be a useful enhancement to undergraduate and post-graduate courses in economics, economic geography, regional science, regional planning, business administration, and international and industrial management. It will also be an invaluable guidance tool for researchers, consultants and policy makers in international organizations such as the EU, the World Bank and the OECD.