Michael Landesmann/István P Székely: Does EU Membership Facilitate Convergence? The Experience of the EU's Eastern Enlargement - Volume I (gebundenes Buch)

This edited volume analyses how EU membership influenced the convergence process of member countries in the Baltics, Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. It also explores countries that are candidates for future EU membership. The speed of convergence of significant groups of low- and medium-income countries has never been as fast globally as it is today. Contributions by lead researchers of the area explore whether these countries are converging faster than their fundamentals and global trends would suggest because of EU membership, with its much tighter institutional and political anchorage

This edited volume analyses the ways in which EU membership contributed to the convergence process of member countries in the Baltics, Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, and also explores countries that are candidates for future EU membership. Importantly, EU membership stands to benefit member states and speed up convergence to the global frontier through several channels. These channels include trade, investment, finance, labour, and laws and institutions. Convergence has also taken place at a global level and the speed of convergence of significant groups of low- and medium-income countries has never been as fast globally as it is today. This volume explores whether EU Member States from the region are converging faster as a result of their EU membership. Global integration has certainly played an important role. Industries have seen the creation of global value chains, which have championed trends also inside the EU. A large part of FDI flows and financial integration in the world have been persistent features of globalization. Have these countries experienced more intensive integration through these channels because of EU membership, with its much tighter institutional and political anchorage, than their fundamentals and global trends would suggest?

Michael A Landesmann is Senior Research Associate, former Scientific Director (1996-2016), of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw), and Professor of economics at the Johannes Kepler University, Austria. He has a D.Phil. from Oxford University and taught and researched at Cambridge University's Department of Applied Economics and Jesus College, Cambridge. His research focuses on international economic integration, industrial structural change, labour markets and migration. István P. Székely is Honorary Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest, and Principal Adviser at the Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs at the European Commission. Before joining the European Commission, he worked at the International Monetary Fund and in the National Bank of Hungary. He has a PhD in economics from the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on financial market and macroeconomic policy issues and on Central and Eastern European economies.