Maria Tsiapa

Cross-Border Cooperation in Southeastern Europe

This article examines the current status, limits, prospects, and policies of cross-border cooperation in the border zone of Albania, Bulgaria, FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), and Greece on the basis of a survey sample of 291 manufacturing firms located near the borders in all four countries. The analysis suggests that border region firms have a higher level of interaction than the respective average national firms in all countries and that trade relations and economic cooperation eventually depend on the level of specialization and the size of the markets. It also suggests that barriers to cooperation are important and can negatively affect the performance of border region firms. Overall, firms are less concerned about the quality of infrastructure and more concerned about the general or the financial conditions prevailing in each country, indicating that the best policy for cross-border cooperation, rather than improvements in infrastructure, may be the development of the economies in the region and the improvements in their economic environment.

Regional inequalities in the European Neighborhood Policy countries: The effects of growth and integration

The paper explores the spatial dynamics in the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) countries, in a period of significant transformations in their internal and external economic environment. Regional disparities are reported to be the net outcome of two opposite dynamics: a pro-cyclical pattern, on the one hand, with dynamic and developed regions growing faster in periods of expansion and slower in periods of recession, and a long-term spread effect, on the other, partly offsetting the cumulative impact of growth on space after some critical level of development. In this framework, expanding trade relations with the European Union advanced countries may be an additional source of spatially unbalanced growth and polarization for the ENP countries, as the costs and benefits of integration prove to be unevenly allocated in space. To the extent that growth and integration dynamics tend to polarize the ENP economic space, a set of critical policy questions arise.

The asymmetric influence of structural funds on regional growth in Greece

In this paper we aim to explore the conditioning effect of structural funds (SF) on regional growth in Greece for the period 1994–2006 by detecting if the ability of regions to convert any financial aid into welfare gains is related to certain region-specific characteristics. The analysis shows that, albeit that important financial aid has been channelled to the less-developed regions, the most advanced regions seem to have benefited more from it. Furthermore, we divide the SF into expenditure categories and conclude that the SF have a positive impact on growth only for those regions in which the regions’ endowments are related to the expenditure received. This interaction of the expenditure categories with the characteristics of the recipient region accentuates the role of the ‘identity’ of each region to the impact of SF on regional growth, thereby signifying valuable policy implications.

Trade relations and potential of the Western Balkans

The subject of this paper is the detection of changes in trade patterns and of the factors that determine Horizontal IIT (HIIT) and Vertical IIT (VIIT) in the Western Balkans. The compilation and estimation of an econometric model of IIT enabled the distinguishing of the determinants of the VIIT and HIIT in two categories: those that have a constant influence on both types of IIT exhibiting their fixed and robust dynamism in trade and those whose behaviour is differentiated and is analogous with the characteristics and the technological incorporation of each type of trade relations.

Industrial Concentration Patterns of the European Union

The analysis of concentration patterns at both the national and the regional levels in the European Union (EU) initially reveals contradictory results of concentration and deconcentration trends. However, these industrial concentration trends in the two spatial dimensions are, in essence, complementary, because further analysis indicates that industrial activities continue to move towards the most dynamic countries but not towards the same powerful regions. This outcome is verified by an econometric approach which, by studying the EU-15 and new EU member states, aims to reveal the characteristics of two deviated productive systems and two different levels of maturity. The empirical analysis shows the existence of a non-monotonic relation between concentration and integration. .

Fragmented Integration and Business Cycle Synchronization in the Greek Regions

This paper examines the degree of business cycle synchronicity among Greek regions and investigates the determinants of the business cycle co-movements of output associated with specific functional and spatial aspects of the integration process among the Greek regions. We analyse nearly 30 years (1980–2008) of data at the NUTSIII level (prefectures). We conclude that the business cycles of prefectures are more synchronized with the NUTSII regional cycle than with the national business cycle revealing a regional (NUTSII) border effect. Moreover, the intensification of the integration process seems to diachronically affect the structural characteristics of the Greek regions and the geography of cyclical synchronization. Our study reveals a two-stage integration process where in the first stage we detect the existence of urbanization economies, while in the second one the existence of localization economies. Furthermore, our study reveals that the metropolitan regions have a low level of business cycle synchronicity with the other regions, stressing Greeces pattern of economic and structural dualism.

Firm resilience in regions of Eastern Europe during the period 2007–2011

Abstract Firms are important economic agents in regions, and their survival and prosperity in crisis periods is closely related to the evolution and welfare of the regions in which they are located. This ability of firms to respond to and recover from shocks is conceptualised by the notion of firm resilience. This paper studies the determinants of firm resilience in the regions of Eastern Europe during the period 2007–2011 using a novel, dynamic, spatial and broad conceptual framework aspect. The analysis shows through a variety of determinants that firms of Eastern EU countries have greater resilience, while it also highlights that the resilience of firms is defined, firstly, not only by current structural transformations but also by the initial conditions and, secondly, not only by the firms’ characteristics and capabilities but also by the spatial characteristics and irregularities of their broader environment.

The role of path-dependence in the resilience of EU regions

ABSTRACT The paper studies the role of path-dependence in the resilience of EU regions. Particularly, employing a nonparametric analysis, the paper demonstrates that historical adjustments of EU regions materialized by productivity improvements, primarily in the manufacturing sector and incidentally in the sectors of construction, financial and non-market services, during the period 1995–2008 secured high(er) levels of regional resilience during the economic crisis period 2008–2013. Such a finding provides implications not only for theory but also for policy. Policies aiming at boosting regional productivity and competitiveness, which through a positive regional performance of high growth rates is concealed, a well-structured and robust production restructuring, might affect regional resilience in a way that shields regional economies not only from current imbalances but also from any future downturns.

Spatial Heterogeneity and Economic Dualism in European Neighbourhood Policy Countries

Abstract This article studies how spatial heterogeneity (by urban concentration) and economic heterogeneity (by economic dualism), which are being affected by trade integration with the EU, influence the growth of European Neighbourhood Policy countries (ENPs). It is proved that urban concentration is not always related to growth. Furthermore, the eastern and southern areas of the ENPs represent two different cases of heterogeneity. In the eastern ENPs the pattern of heterogeneity seems to generate more benefits for the metropolitan region and the country in comparison with the southern ENPs in which population accumulations do not function as critical foundations of their development process.

The Emerging Economic Geography Setting in New EU Member States: A Comparative Account of Regional Industrial Performance and Adjustment

The market-based process of economic integration, although it is perceived to generate higher levels of aggregate efficiency, can possibly be associated with higher levels of inequality. In spatial terms, this is believed to lead to regional imbalances, with less advanced regions possibly experiencing, in the integration process, weaker gains or even net losses, compared to their more advanced counterparts. Such types of argument are in variance with the neoclassical understanding of the operation of the spatial economy and contribute to an ongoing discussion among academics and politicians on the impact of integration on the growth potential of less advanced European Union (EU) regions.