It has been suggested that regionalism is defined “as an economic process whereby economic flows grow more rapidly among a given group of states [in the same region] than between these states and those located elsewhere”. In this paper we approach the economic underpinnings for the Baltic Sea Region by analysing the developments with regard to trade and investment in the quarter of a century that has passed since the fall of the communist regimes that divided the European continent At the same time we look into the political developments that brought the 2009 adoption of the European Union’s first macroregional strategy, the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. The strategy was a symbolic second milestone with regard to the political endeavours to reintegrate the continent; the first being the 2004 enlargement. Having transformed the Baltic Sea from a ‘Mare Dividum’ to a European ‘Mare Nostrum’ was indeed also a sign of the success of such integrative political processes.

However, it may also be argued that the perceived need for a specific strategy in order to further and deepen the integration and reduce the economic gaps within the European Union gives an indication that there was more to be wished for with regard to this region. Further, more recent political developments in Europe as such as well as the constituent countries of this macroregion has cast some doubts on the future. In this paper we ask ourselves whether developments with regard to investments and trade are in congruence with the notion of the building of one integrated region; does it make economic sense to talk about a Baltic Sea Region or is the eastwest divide still present? For example, to what extent have the developments with regard to foreign direct investments proved sustainable? What sectors are leading the way and which are lagging? What divisions remain to be tackled? These are some of the questions that this paper attempts to address based upon a thorough analysis of the existing sources with regard to foreign direct investment and trade flows. In addition, in a concluding section, we open up an analysis on whether recent political development risk nullifying the progress made on the economic arena – or whether Brexit and connected developments are actually reinforcing the European macroregional agenda?

The fall of the Berlin Wall began a new, and unexpected, period of European political and economic history. For some, this event proved the historical victory of liberal democratic capitalism over socialism. But three decades on, we now know that democratic market economies do not emerge not spontaneously, and are indeed fragile in their own ways. History has not ended, but taken a new and interesting turn. This book provides a historically and conceptually grounded analysis of the transformation of fi nance and business in several countries in Central Europe and the Baltic states after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The essays in this book seek to foreground the continuities and ruptures that the experience of these ‘transition’ countries has revealed. It will be of interest to economic historians, sociologists, political science scholars, fi nancial economists, policy makers, and of course to those who have lived through the period.

Economics is undergoing important shifts in focus and theoretical orientation. In part, this has been a response to the need to address changing economic circumstances, including the collapse of communism, globalisation and financial volatility. In addressing those problems economists have also been forced to re-examine many long held principles and approaches. This book is a collection of essays addressing themes that are part of that process of critical re-evaluation: exchange rate regimes, internationalisation of investment, and the economics of transition. The book brings these issues together in a way that draws out some of the common themes and issues as well the current frontier of research in each area. It will be of interest to economists as well as those concerned with the way economics as a discipline has been addressing important questions about the world we are living in as well as how history can help us to understand it.

This paper investigates the dynamics of FDIs in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) by applying the Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood estimation method on a gravity model. In particular, we analyze the influence of macro and spatial factors on investment stock changes and discuss whether the origin of these investments and the 2004 EU enlargement have had any effects on BSR FDIs.

Our results suggest that EU enlargement has been significant for FDI activity in the region, and that FDI is basically a regional issue as it tends to be bilateral within the region. However, the same results also suggest that geographic distance is not a significant factor. We conclude that while being traditional in nature, the BSR FDI pattern is undergoing changes towards a lesser degree of geographic bias.

Since 1989, there has been a period of rapid change of the economies of the former Eastern bloc. Within a few years, the majority of the formerly centrally administered economies had begun restructuring their economic systems, including the privatisation. of formerly state-owned enterprises. This process developed differently in different countries, depending among other things on their historical traditions and the momentum of their social, political and economic transformations.

This doctoral dissertation examines the privatisation of large-scale industrial enterprises in Slovakia prior to 1997. In particular the thesis analyses the changing political and institutional framework governing the process and method of privatisation; and how the governance of firms was affected by the new markets and ownership- and control-structures that were established. Special attention is paid to the role played by investment funds andinvestment-companies established as a consequence of voucher privatisation. The research problem is approached both from an aggregate national level and from the enterprise level. The thesis includes a number of case studies of enterprises in Slovakia that underwent privatisation, and of investment funds that emerged to take part in the process. In addition, two panel-data sets were constructed for the sake of statistical analysis.

The study points to the drastic changes in privatisation policy and its enactment, under different governments. It leads to the conclusion that privatisation is a highly political process, whose economic effects cannot be separated from its distributional effects. This politicised nature of ownership reform is shown to have some negative side-effects with regard to the development of well-functioning governance structures. It is, for example, pointed to that the capital market, as it developed during the period of study, was highly non-transparent,characterised by high transaction costs and insider-trading. The study also documents an increasingly concentrated ownership structure of the Slovak industry and relates it to the changes in privatisation policy. In the final analysis attention is drawn to a recurring theme in the study, namely the issues related to the relative stability and durability of the institutional set-up. In many cases an insecurity about "the rules of the game" led to short-term incentives and opportunism on behalf of the economic and political agents.

The fall of the Berlin Wall began a new, and unexpected, period of European political and economic history. For some, this event proved the historical victory of liberal democratic capitalism over socialism. But three decades on, we now know that democratic market economies do not emerge not spontaneously, and are indeed fragile in their own ways. History has not ended, but taken a new and interesting turn. This book provides a historically and conceptually grounded analysis of the transformation of fi nance and business in several countries in Central Europe and the Baltic states after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The essays in this book seek to foreground the continuities and ruptures that the experience of these ‘transition’ countries has revealed. It will be of interest to economic historians, sociologists, political science scholars, fi nancial economists, policy makers, and of course to those who have lived through the period.

The fall of the Berlin Wall began a new, and unexpected, period of European political and economic history. For some, this event proved the historical victory of liberal democratic capitalism over socialism. But three decades on, we now know that democratic market economies do not emerge not spontaneously, and are indeed fragile in their own ways. History has not ended, but taken a new and interesting turn. This book provides a historically and conceptually grounded analysis of the transformation of fi nance and business in several countries in Central Europe and the Baltic states after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The essays in this book seek to foreground the continuities and ruptures that the experience of these ‘transition’ countries has revealed. It will be of interest to economic historians, sociologists, political science scholars, fi nancial economists, policy makers, and of course to those who have lived through the period.

The fall of the Berlin Wall began a new, and unexpected, period of European political and economic history. For some, this event proved the historical victory of liberal democratic capitalism over socialism. But three decades on, we now know that democratic market economies do not emerge not spontaneously, and are indeed fragile in their own ways. History has not ended, but taken a new and interesting turn. This book provides a historically and conceptually grounded analysis of the transformation of fi nance and business in several countries in Central Europe and the Baltic states after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The essays in this book seek to foreground the continuities and ruptures that the experience of these ‘transition’ countries has revealed. It will be of interest to economic historians, sociologists, political science scholars, fi nancial economists, policy makers, and of course to those who have lived through the period.

Some twenty years after the fall of the communist dictatorships that divided the European continent the European Union in late 2009 adopted its first ever macroregional strategy – the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. The strategy was a symbolic second milestone with regard to the political endeavours to reintegrate the continent; the first being the 2004 enlargement. Having transformed the Baltic Sea from a Mare Dividum to a European Mare Nostrum is indeed also a sign of the success of such integrative political processes. However, at the same time the perceived need for a specific strategy in order to further and deepen the integration and reduce the economic gaps within the European Union gives an indication that there is more to be wished for with regard to this region.

It has been suggested that regionalism is defined “as an economic process whereby economic flows grow more rapidly among a given group of states [in the same region] than between these states and those located elsewhere”. In this paper we thus approach the economic underpinnings for the Baltic Sea Region by analysing the developments with regard to investment and trade flows during the last twenty years.

We ask ourselves whether these developments are in congruence with the notion of the building of one integrated region and whether it makes economic sense to talk about a Baltic Sea Region? For example, to what extent have the developments with regard to foreign direct investments proved sustainable? What sectors are leading the way and which are lagging? What divisions remain to be tackled? These are some of the questions that this paper attempts to address based upon a thorough analysis of the existing sources with regard to trade and investment flows.

The fall of the Berlin Wall began a new, and unexpected, period of European political and economic history. For some, this event proved the historical victory of liberal democratic capitalism over socialism. But three decades on, we now know that democratic market economies do not emerge not spontaneously, and are indeed fragile in their own ways. History has not ended, but taken a new and interesting turn. This book provides a historically and conceptually grounded analysis of the transformation of fi nance and business in several countries in Central Europe and the Baltic states after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The essays in this book seek to foreground the continuities and ruptures that the experience of these ‘transition’ countries has revealed. It will be of interest to economic historians, sociologists, political science scholars, fi nancial economists, policy makers, and of course to those who have lived through the period.