European Economic Integration And Fragmentation Of Production

The book is a collection of selected papers written by Lucia Tajoli and her co-authors in the period when the countries of Central and Eastern Europe where going through their so-called “transition”, and were transforming their economies in view of their membership of the European Union (EU). The increasing economic integration between Western and Eastern Europe shaped dramatically their conversion process, and it affected a number of changes also in the economies of the EU. In particular, the extension of the process of international fragmentation of production across Western and Eastern Europe speed up the industrial transformation in the transition economies, and helped the Western European countries to sustain their competitiveness.The papers looks at these transformations from both perspectives, considering the advantages and the costs occurred on both sides. The effects of international fragmentation of production are analyzed at the industry level in some papers, while their macroeconomic consequences at the country level are examined in other papers. The results of this integration process for the European economy are also discussed.