Eastern Journal of European Studies

Business regulation and economic growth in the Western Balkan countries

Authors: Engjell PERE, Albana HASHORVA

Abstract: Actually economic policies in many countries aimed to stimulate their economic growth, particularly after negative impact of the global economic crisis. In this regards, fiscal regulation are an important aspect of those policies, that can promote or obstacle the economic growth in general. In this point of view this paper aims to analyze the system of administration rules in different Western Balkans Countries, (which includes Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia (FYROM), Montenegro and Serbia). Moreover, a special attention is given investigation of the regulation and administrative facilitation aspects of doing business in the above-mentioned countries, whether this system stimulates, or not, the development of private business and economic growth. The paper is divided into three main sections. The first part provides a retrospective of economic growth in the Western Balkan countries and the dependence of this growth on global economic development. The second part proceeds with the investigations of the impact of administrative regulation on economic growth. The third part, based on an econometric model, will analyze the correlation between economic growth and elaborated indicators which present the level of business administrative regulation system. Furthermore, this last section discusses the results and concludes. In this analysis, the paper is based substantially on the data base of "Doing Business 2013" (World Bank).

Keywords: economic growth, economic regulation, fiscal system, fiscal policy

Pages: 5-15 | Full text (PDF)

Local regulation between formal and informal institutions: analysis by application to the case of the town of Ksar-Hellal (Tunisia)

Author: Makram GAALICHE

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to detect the relevance degrees of formal and informal institutions at the level of local regulation, as well as their effects on the local companies' productivity. Indeed, by analyzing the territory of the Ksar-Hellal town, we noted that informal institutions, apprehended by trust and collective punishment, contribute with the formal penal institutions to channel the behavior of Hilalian companies but with less effectiveness. Similarly, the strong contribution of exogenous institutions in boosting productivity compared to that of the endogenous ones states that decision makers should improve the quality of formal regulation and this at the expense of any form of regulation built by values commonly shared by the local community.

Keywords: local regulation, formal institutions, informal institutions, productivity, Tunisia

Pages: 17-24 | Full text (PDF)

Resolving the dilemma between equality and liberty: the Swedish political system

Author: Nathalie BLANC-NOEL

Abstract: Swedish democracy ranks very high in international democracy indexes. It fascinates political scientists from all over the world because it seems to have resolved a fundamental political dilemma: the choice between equality and liberty, without the historical inconvenient of regimes which favoured too much equality - but killed liberty, or regimes which favoured liberty - but failed to make citizens equal... The "'egalitarian pluralism" practiced in Swedish political system is rooted in a specific political culture. This culture has opted for popular sovereignty and comes from the ancient peasant society. Lutheran values and the absence of feudalism paved the way to the search for equality and the edification of a strong State. In the 20th century, the Social-democrats endorsed the traditional Swedish values and prolonged them in the so-called Swedish model, with social policies allowing more equality along with more individual autonomy. Nowadays, the model is evolving, coping with globalization, and the definition of equality is under discussion.

Keywords: Sweden, political system, equality, political culture

Pages: 25-40 | Full text (PDF)

Economy and foreign relations in Europe in the early inter-war period - The case of Hungary's financial reconstruction

Author: Lucian LEUSTEAN

Abstract: All the measures taken by the different Hungarian governments in the period between 1920 and 1924 to cope with the financial consequences of the Great War did not record the expected success. At the beginning of 1923, it was quite clear for the leaders of Budapest that the possible benefits of the inflationist phenomenon had disappeared and the country's only chance to recover was the appeal to international financial aid. Consequently, after failing to get a loan from Switzerland, the only solution for Hungary was to ask for the help of the League of Nations, especially that this modality had been successfully used by Austria, who was confronted to a more desperate economic and financial situation than Hungary. Our paper is the story of that endeavour and its immediate outcomes.

Keywords: Hungary, financial reconstruction, League of Nations, inter-war period, war reparations, international relations

Pages: 41-56  | Full text (PDF)

Integrated in the global value chains - trade developments between Hungary and Asia

Authors: Andrea ELTETO, Katalin VOLGYI

Abstract: The international crisis which has been ongoing since 2008 caused severe recession and decrease of internal demand in the EU area. Therefore, European companies began to look for new markets outside the EU. In spite of the large distance, Asia can be one of the regions aimed by exporters. In the case of Hungary, this is even supported by the Hungarian government. The role of Asia has increased between 2000-2012 in Hungarian foreign trade. The article describes the developments and trends of Hungarian exports and imports concerning the Asian countries. The product structure of trade is analysed in detail, geographic and product concentration of trade is shown. We also examine the share of high-tech products in trade with the main important partners of each Asian region. The article concludes that the Hungarian trade with Asia is largely influenced by the global production system of multinational companies.

Keywords: foreign trade, Hungary, Asia, export concentration, global value chains, high technology products

Pages: 57-79 | Full text (PDF)

Foreign trade trends in the Hungarian-Romanian turnover of agricultural products

Author: Miklos VASARY

Abstract: The accession to the European Union (EU) has brought a lot of advantages for all the new member states (NMS). The general and wide range implementation of economic integration gave the hope of economic prosperity and macroeconomic stability for all the new member states. In the case of foreign trade of agricultural products the possibility of expansion has opened after EU integration. The chance to build and stabilize new trading relations was especially important for the small countries with an open economy. In general, it can be concluded from the analysis of EU membership that the trade among new member countries has substantially expanded as a result of increasing trading activities in relation to member states which integrated into the EU in 2004 and also due to the elimination of former trading barriers and a growing common internal market. Starting from this, the examination of trading of goods between particular countries is also justified. The important aspects in considering the possible solutions for the consequences of the economic crisis in 2008 are: the strengthening of regional markets, the utilization of geographical conditions and the increasing role of comparative advantages. The present study details how the Hungarian-Romanian agricultural trade has changed in the frames of bilateral trading activities due to the second wave of Eastern expansion and what tendencies can be observed. In regards to trading of goods, it is reviewed which products show concentration and which products can be characterized with comparative advantages.

Keywords: agricultural foreign trade, Hungary, Romania, EU, export specialization, comparative advantage

Pages: 81-103 | Full text (PDF)

A political crisis in an economic tempest (January 2008 - December 2012)

Author: Davide VITTORI

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze the evolution of the European Union in the economic and financial field during the global crisis that stroke Europe, from January 2008 until December 2012. My argument is that the European Union has faced certain political and economical imbalances since its beginnings in 1992 which have worsen the European economic and financial scenario. These imbalances - rooted in the EU architecture - were the result of a primary political choice: building a European market based on neoliberal values and setting aside any political controversy that may have caused a slowdown in the economic and financial integration. Since 1992, the Maastricht Treaty has shown some incongruities which were not resolved in the following two decades. Moreover, the decision-making process became more intricate so that Europe faced the worst post-war financial crisis without the instruments to answer rapidly to the financial speculation. The ECB, following its price stability mandate, was not able to react with counter-cyclical measures, thus exacerbating the financial imbalances between Northern and Southern European States. After an economic "perfect storm", EU Member States need to have enough farsightedness to implement some fundamental reforms in order to give the necessary means to EU institutions to erect an efficient firewall against financial speculations.

Keywords: economic and financial crisis, European Union, sovereign debts, European Council, European Commission, European Central Bank

Pages: 105-126 | Full text (PDF)

Black swans or creeping normalcy? An attempt to a holistic crisis analysis

Author: Oliver KOVACS

Abstract: In this article we address the daunting challenge of current economic recovery by contributing to the better understanding of its secular feature. In so doing we devote special attention to the secular decline in innovativeness by raising three interlinked and interrelated explanatory phenomena: (i) lowering productivity in the new techno-economic paradigm; (ii) the effect of the different degree of employment protection; and (iii) the issue of pent up disruptive innovations. We argue that these phenomena are not black swans; however, they have been developing in commonly unnoticed increments by manifesting the so-called 'creeping normalcy' and being endogenous to the market system. The paper draws lessons to be learned for the Central and Eastern European Member States as well.

Keywords:  crisis, productivity, innovation, secular deterioration, Europe, Central and Eastern Europe

Pages: 127-143 | Full text (PDF)

Actual problems of the antimonopoly requirements` observance in the bidding for the sale of land in the Russian Federation

Authors: Alexey Pavlovich ANISIMOV, Marina Jurievna KOZLOVA, Anatoly Jakovlevitch RIZHENKOV

Abstract: A comprehensive view of the topic of Antimonopoly regulation in the sphere of land auctions for the Russian legal science and legal science other Eastern European countries is highly relevant. The importance of such research is that foreign companies having business in Russia are not always aware of specificity in land tendering legal regulation and antimonopoly requirements in this sphere. Moreover, the practice of violation of antimonopoly legislation in the sphere of land tendering and probable means of legislation improvement may hereby present more interest for them. The authors cite and analyze various typical violations in the sphere of land tendering, including publication of land auctions notices in an improper printing agency; lack of applications registration and putting forward extra requirements towards the participants; display for land parcels auctions for which no technical specifications of networking have been determined and no payment for such networking has been established; attempts of local administration to provide land parcels without prior approval of the objects' places of location and without auctions (though such a procedure is of an extremely local character and is only performed in cases expressly specified by the Federal Law); collection of extra and illegal fees from physical and legal entities for participation in auctions; tendering in cases when they are not to be carried out under the Law (gardening, haymaking); underpricing of a land parcel, etc. Eventually a conclusion is drawn on the effectiveness of auctions which shall be secured by establishing a legal procedure which details and definitely determines tendering regulations, requirements towards the participants and order of agreement's conclusion. Control on the part of antimonopoly bodies, undoubtedly, allows forming barriers for dishonest participants of the auctions. The authors assume that it is rather difficult to achieve absence of mal-usage by means of coercive measures in this sphere. Auctions may only result in contract conclusion under fair terms and conditions if all the participants of relations hereof apply a principle of good faith while determining a vector of their behavior.

Keywords: auctions, competitive legislation, dishonesty, land law, land parcel, residential house

Pages: 145-156 | Full text (PDF)

BOOK REVIEW:

Tim Haughton (editor), Party politics in Central and Eastern Europe. Does EU membership matter?, Routledge, 2011

Author: Danica FINK-HAFNER

Pages: 157-159 | Full text (PDF)

BOOK REVIEW:

Pierre Bauby, L'europeanisation des services publics, Paris, Presses de Science Po, 2011

Author: Lucian-Dumitru DIRDALA

Pages: 161-163 | Full text (PDF)