New Economic Geography meets Comecon: Regional Wages and Industry Location in Central Europe
Details
State: Public
Version: author
Serval ID
serval:BIB_D81D7B491693
Type
Report: a report published by a school or other institution, usually numbered within a series.
Publication sub-type
Working paper: Working papers contain results presented by the author. Working papers aim to stimulate discussions between scientists with interested parties, they can also be the basis to publish articles in specialized journals
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
New Economic Geography meets Comecon: Regional Wages and Industry Location in Central Europe
Institution details
Université de Lausanne - HEC - DEEP
Issued date
01/2005
Number
05.01
Genre
Cahiers de recherches économiques
Language
english
Number of pages
24
Notes
Published in: Economics of Transition, vol. 14 (2), April 2006, pp.245-267
Abstract
We analyze the internal spatial wage and employment structures of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia, using regional data for 1996-2000. A new economic
geography model predicts wage gradients and specialization patterns that are smoothly related to regions' relative market access. As an alternative, we formulate a "Comecon hypothesis", according to which wages and sectoral location are not systematically related to market access except for discrete concentrations in capital regions. Our estimations confirm the ongoing relevance of the Comecon hypothesis: compared to pre-2004 EU members, Central European countries' average wages and service employment were still discretely higher in capital regions. Our results point towards an increase in relative wages and employment shares of Central Europe's provincial regions, favoring particularly those that are proximate to the large markets of incumbent EU members.
geography model predicts wage gradients and specialization patterns that are smoothly related to regions' relative market access. As an alternative, we formulate a "Comecon hypothesis", according to which wages and sectoral location are not systematically related to market access except for discrete concentrations in capital regions. Our estimations confirm the ongoing relevance of the Comecon hypothesis: compared to pre-2004 EU members, Central European countries' average wages and service employment were still discretely higher in capital regions. Our results point towards an increase in relative wages and employment shares of Central Europe's provincial regions, favoring particularly those that are proximate to the large markets of incumbent EU members.
Keywords
regional wages, industry location, transition economies, Central Europe, new economic geography
Create date
20/08/2013 14:13
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:57
Usage data
