Industrial restructuring in transitional Baltic Sea Region countries (Baltic States, Kaliningrad oblast)

Mihkel Laan ()

ERSA conference papers from European Regional Science Association

Abstract: This paper analyses recent trends in industrial development in the Baltic Sea transition countries. The heavy industry collapsed during the first half of 1990s in most former socialist countries. However, since the second half of 1990s the industrial output, export, productivity and even employment (in some branches) has been increased remarkably. And instead of a de-industrialisation, which has been general trend in Western Europe since 1970s, we may speak about a re-industrialisation. Foreign investors have played major role in the restructuring and efficiency growth of manufacturing in transitional economies. The rising importance of foreign investors and the growing export and re-export to other BSR countries are showing, that the industries in transitional countries are becoming more and more integrated to developed BSR countries. Still, especially textiles and electronics that are concentrated on relatively low-skilled subcontracting are characterised by a sharp rise in re-exports. Hypothetically, when considering the price convergence in the case BSR transition countries joining the European Union, those low value added booming industries can run into crisis soon and relocate the production to further cheaper regions in Russia or South-East Asia. The empirical part analyses recent industrial development trends (employment structure, exports, investments) in three Baltic countries and Kaliningrad oblast. Finally, I try to compare the industrial restructuring within particular clusters in Estonia and Kaliningrad oblast using statistics and interviews. Key words: regional integration, transitional economies, industrial development

Date: 2003-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa03/cdrom/papers/505.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa03p505

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ERSA conference papers from European Regional Science Association Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna, Austria.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Gunther Maier ().