Edited by three European editors and spanning across Europe, this excellent study focuses on the effects of the European integration process on the inter-regional division of labour in both western and Eastern European countries. Using extensive empirical analysis of the changes of regional specialization over a period of two decades, observing its causes and consequences the authors show economic integration as a relocation of resources across sectors and space. The authors argue that the resulting challenge to both regional and social cohesion in the enlarged European Union may require a reorientation of cohesion policy at European, national and local levels. Disaggregated national data sets with respect to both the sectoral and spatial levels are combined with an analysis of both regional structural change and the role of foreign direct investment in this process. This book will be of great interest to post graduate students and researchers interested in international trade and regional economics as well as policy makers engaged with regional and structural changes at both a European and national level.

This title was first published in 2001. A comparative overview and analysis of the economic performance, structure and trade relations of the Balkan region. Using original, detailed and up-to-the minute data, the contributors detect basic trends and developments with respect to trade relations, foreign direct investment, the performance of industry, the level and quality of infrastructure, the domestic policies of transition as well as the European Union policies for the region. The evidence provided indicates that should current trends continue in the future, the Balkan region will diverge further from the more advanced European countries, forming a new expanded and much weaker European periphery. In that respect, mainstream economic thinking of the integration-transition dynamics needs to be re-evaluated, as multi-speed and multi-direction performances generate a more fragmented economic space than the very essence of the European idea may possibly tolerate.

Edited by three European editors and spanning across Europe, this excellent study focuses on the effects of the European integration process on the inter-regional division of labour in both western and Eastern European countries. Using extensive empirical analysis of the changes of regional specialization over a period of two decades, observing its causes and consequences the authors show economic integration as a relocation of resources across sectors and space. The authors argue that the resulting challenge to both regional and social cohesion in the enlarged European Union may require a reorientation of cohesion policy at European, national and local levels. Disaggregated national data sets with respect to both the sectoral and spatial levels are combined with an analysis of both regional structural change and the role of foreign direct investment in this process. This book will be of great interest to post graduate students and researchers interested in international trade and regional economics as well as policy makers engaged with regional and structural changes at both a European and national level.

With the harmonization of the EU economies, and issues of EU enlargement and integration with Europe's transition economies topping the political agenda, the economic geography of Europe is being recast. This important volume analyses the spatial implications of the integration-transition process, and examines key issues such as north-south and east-west divides, regional cooperation and cross-border dynamics.