Post-communist Eastern European Countries Research Articles

Real Effective Exchange Rates and deindustrialization: Evidence from 25 Post-Communist Eastern European countries

ABSTRACT For the past three decades, Eastern European countries have exhibited a noticeable decline in their share of the industrial production sector overall, but not uniformly. Simultaneously, trade liberalisation and integration in international production networks were intensified, bringing different export sophistication levels and economic development to countries in this region. This paper aims to examine the real effective exchange rate (REER) impact on the deindustrialisation or reindustrialisation process in 25 post-communist Eastern European countries. The paper employs a heterogeneous panel common factor approach for the period 1995–2018 to exploit the effect of diverse levels of export complexity, stage of economic development and intensity of participation in global value chains on the REER–industrial production relationship. The results establish a heterogeneous yet significant negative relationship between currency strengthening and industrial production. Our findings also indicate that this negative effect of appreciation is less pronounced with the country’s higher economic complexity and its broader participation in global value chains.

Real Effective Exchange Rates and Deindustrialization: Evidence from 25 Post-Communist Eastern European Countries

For the past three decades, Eastern European countries overall, but not uniformly, have exhibited a noticeable decline in their share of the industrial production sector. At the same time, trade liberalization and integration in international production networks were intensified, bringing different levels of economic development of countries in this region. The objective of this paper is to examine the impact of the real effective exchange rate (REER) on the deindustrialization or reindustrialization process in 25 post-communist Eastern European countries. The paper employs heterogeneous panel common factor approach for the period 1995-2018 to exploit the effect of diverse levels of export complexity, stage of economic development, and intensity of participation in global value chains on REER- industrial production relationship. The results establish a heterogeneous yet significant negative relationship between REER and industrial production. Our findings indicate that higher economic complexity and participation in global value chain reduces the effect of depreciation on industry development.https://www.textfixer.com/tools/remove-line-breaks.php

Prosecuting high-level corruption in Eastern Europe

Do Eastern European courts effectively constrain politicians and uphold the rule of law? Criminal prosecution of grand (high-level) corruption can further the central principle of equal responsibility under the law by demonstrating that even powerful political actors have to submit to the laws of the land. This article introduces the Eastern European Corruption Prosecution Database, which contains entries for all cabinet ministers (927 in total) who served in a government that held office in one of seven post-Communist Eastern European countries since the late 1990s. The systematic data collection reveals that Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia consistently indict more ministers than Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Poland; Slovakia has barely indicted anyone. We aim to start a research agenda by formulating hypotheses about which countries will see more corruption prosecutions and which ministers' characteristics would make them more likely to face the court. We use the database to begin testing these hypotheses and find some evidence for several associations. We find no strong evidence that EU conditionality or membership raises the profile of the grand corruption issue or leads to more indictments. Party politics seems to affect the frequency of corruption indictments more than the structure and behavior of legal institutions. Indictment rates are lower when a former Communist party controls the government and individual ministers from junior coalition partners are more vulnerable to indictment than other ministers. The existence of a specialized anti-corruption prosecution or a more independent judiciary do not seem to lead to the indictment of more ministers on corruption charges. Finally, we discuss avenues of future research that our database opens, both for the analysis of country-level and individual-level variation.

Political satire in the Republic of Macedonia: Forms of humour and satire types in the online satirical news outlet Koza Nostra

Abstract Political satire is a type of critique that uses humour to reflect on issues in politics and media. While most of academic research has focused on entertainment shows in the United States, this study focuses on political satire in a different context, through identifying the forms of humour (irony and sarcasm) and satire types (juvenalian and horatian) in the Republic of Macedonia. In a content analysis of satirical news outlet Koza Nostra, it has been shown that lighter, more gentle horatian satire is predominant in the outlet’s articles (N=53), while instances of less inferential sarcasm outnumber those of complex irony. These findings demonstrate that political humour in the country is careful not to alienate its audiences, which in turn could be indicative of the manner in which satirical content is cognitively processed, and suggestive of wider implications for democracy and the public sphere in post-communist Eastern European countries.

International primary care snapshot: academic primary care in Italy.

Family medicine (also known as general practice or primary health care) has undergone substantial growth accompanied by academic development in Western countries during recent years. In Europe, however, the situation is not uniform: although in Northern European countries family medicine is established in both the national health system (NHS) and the universities, and academic general practice looks promising in post-Communist Eastern European countries, in Southern European counterparts it is still considered a minor medical discipline. Even within Southern Europe the pattern of family medicine is not homogeneous, because several countries such as Croatia, Portugal, and Greece do include some academic curricula in family medicine. Yet this is not the case in Italy, where general practice is completely devoid of any academic features. In fact, Italian universities have no primary care departments at all, and general practice is not even included in the undergraduate curriculum of Italian medical schools. Only private foundations conduct primary care research in Italy. Italian GPs do not have the opportunity to pursue a PhD programme in family medicine, nor …

Is liberal bias universal? An international perspective on social psychologists.

Based on our comparison of political orientation and research interests of social psychologists in capitalist Western countries versus post-Communist Eastern European countries, we suggest that Duarte and colleagues' claim of liberal bias in the field seems American-centric. We propose an alternative account of political biases which focuses on the academic tendency to explain attitudes of lower status groups.

Overcoming Greed: An Eastern Christian Perspective

Overcoming Greed:An Eastern Christian Perspective1 Valerie A. Karras As an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I have chosen to approach the topic of "overcoming greed" from an Eastern Christian perspective, relying particularly on the writings of some of the early theologians of the Greek East. It is not coincidental either that laissez-faire capitalism arose in the Western Christian world, or that the first strongholds of communism developed in Eastern European, traditionally Orthodox, countries. Both phenomena speak to an intrinsic difference in the way in which human beings are conceived as relating to the world and to each other, both personally and communally.The traditional Eastern Christian model of the human person as not simply caretaker of creation, but fundamentally as a mediator uniting all aspects of creation in humanity's own nature,2 has led historically to a general lack of interest in exploiting creation (in fact, the worst environmental problems in the Orthodox world occurred in countries after they came under totalitarian communist domination). Similarly, the Eastern Orthodox emphasis on the relational, and even communal, nature of salvation created an environment hostile to the individualist, exploitative model upon which modern Western economics has been founded (this has been rapidly changing in post-communist Eastern European countries and Russia, however). The Eastern Church identifies this phenomenon of exploitative and abusive relationships toward nature and other persons as a consequence of the fallen condition of humanity, that is, humanity as it currently exists, in a state where our natural communion with God has been ruptured. In this context, Christianity in general and Eastern Christianity in particular recognize greed as one of the passions (equivalent to what Buddhism describes as "cravings") that are part of our fallen human nature, a consequence of our separation from God. Some of the passions are primarily physical in nature, others emotional or psychic, but in fact virtually all passions are a combination of the two. Greed, a passion of both soul and body that is endemic to our current existence, is typical of this understanding. There are two aspects to the vice of greed: (1) the emotional or spiritual dimension, that is, the acquisitive lust that usually betokens either a deep-seated insecurity or, worse, a desire for power and control; and (2) the [End Page 47] external, physical manifestations of greed in the actual acquisition of things, often to the detriment or exploitation of others. Eastern Christian writings attempt to work on both dimensions of the passion of greed, especially the spiritual, while often distinguishing between greed (a moral vice) and wealth (an amoral condition). This article will focus on two early church theologians, Clement of Alexandria and John Chrysostom. In particular, it will focus on their biblical exegeses of two pertinent New Testament passages: Jesus' conversation with a young righteous scholar of the Mosaic Law and the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, respectively. Finally, I will suggest that, for Orthodox Christians, an important key to overcoming greed is disciplined asceticism, to be practiced by all persons and not simply by monks and nuns. Asceticism—the exercise of control over the passions through fasting, prayer, chastity (understood differently for married and unmarried persons), and almsgiving—is the vehicle by which to cultivate an attitude of apatheia or passionlessness, the Christian equivalent of the Buddhist ideal of detachment. Clement was a philosopher-theologian who headed the great Christian catechetical school in Alexandria in the late second century C.E. In his treatise Who IstheRich ManWhoWill Be Saved? 3 Clement mused on the spiritual and soteriological dimensions of greed by reflecting on Jesus' encounter with the wealthy young "lawyer," that is, scholar of the Mosaic Law, who questioned Jesus on how to acquire eternal life. In his response, the young man showed himself righteous in his adherence to the demands of the law, but ultimately unwilling to commit all of himself by giving away his property, even though Jesus said that it was the price to inherit eternal life. Clement pondered whether it were therefore possible for anyone wealthy to be saved, given Jesus' declaration that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man...

Outward-Oriented Developing Economies Really Do Grow More Rapidly: Evidence from 95 LDCs, 1976-1985

The long run trade orientation of an economy is measured in this article by an index which measures the extent to which the real exchange rate is distorted away from its free trade level by the trade regime. The technique for estimating a cross country index of real exchange rate distortion uses the international comparison of prices prepared by Robert Summers and Alan Heston. Resource endowment constitutes the norm and real overvaluation or undervaluation relative to this norm reveals whether incentives are directed to the domestic or international market. The index is constructed based on data for GDP/capita average price level in US dollars 1976-85 and GDP growth rate/capita 1976-85. Other sections are devoted the comparison of the procedure for 117 countries between 1976-85 and an examination of the empirical relationship between outward orientation and economic growth and sensitivity analysis. The results indicate that Latin America generally was overvalued by 33% relative to Asia and Africa was overvalued by 86%. The real exchange rate distortion index supports the view that Asian countries are more outward oriented. Asian economies have lower price levels which reflect relatively modest protection and incentives oriented to external markets. Latin American countries with moderately high price level and African countries with very high price levels reflect strong protection and incentives directed to production for the domestic market. An alternative specification which eliminates the dummy variables for Africa yields similar results with slightly lower magnitude; i.e. overvaluation is 60% instead of 86% for Africa and Latin America is overvalued by 39% instead of 33% over Asia. A table is provided which indicates by country the distortion and variability of the real exchange rate the GDP growth the 1976 GDP/capita and the investment rate. Another finding was that there is a significant negative relationship between distortion of the real exchange rate and growth of GDP/capita after controlling for the effects of real exchange rate variability and investment level with both the original specification and the alternative. The growth rate/capita of Latin American and African countries would increase 1.5-2.1% with a shift to move outward oriented trade policies. This gain as well as devaluation of the real exchange reate trade liberalization and maintenance of a stable real exchange rate would contribute to positive growth rates. In the analysis of the poorest 24 countries the result was that only rate distortion and not variability and investment rate explained the growth rate. The gain for Ghana for example of adopting the trade policies and exchange rate of Bangladesh would be 5% to its growth.

The Economies of Scale

THE theory of the economies of scale is the theory of the relationship between the scale of use of a properly chosen combination of all productive services and the rate of output of the enterprise. In its broadest formulation this theory is a crucial element of the economic theory of social organization, for it underlies every question of market organization and the role (and locus) of governmental control over economic life. Let one ask himself how an economy would be organized if every economic activity were prohibitively inefficient upon alternately a small scale and a large scale, and the answer will convince him that here lies a basic element of the theory of economic organization. The theory has limped along for a century, collecting large pieces of good reasoning and small chunks of empirical evidence but never achieving scientific prosperity. A large cause of its poverty is that the central concept of the theory-the firm of optimum size-has eluded confident measurement. We have been dangerously close to denying Lincoln, for all economists have been ignorant of the optimum size of firm in almost every industry all of the time, and this ignorance has been an insurmountable barrier between us and the understanding of the forces which govern optimum size. It is almost as if one were trying to measure the nutritive values of goods without knowing whether the consumers who ate them continued to live.