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.
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Length: 24 pages Date of creation: Jan 2005 Date of revision: Publication status: Published in Economics of Transition, vol. 14 (2), April 2006, pp.245-267 Handle: RePEc:lau:crdeep:05.01
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Gianmarco Ottaviano & Takatoshi Tabuchi & Jacques-FranÁois Thisse, 2002.
"Agglomeration and Trade Revisited,"
International Economic Review,
Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 43(2), pages 409-436, May.
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OTTAVIANO, Gianmarco & TABUCHI, Takatoshi & THISSE, Jacques-Franois, 1999.
"Agglomeration and trade revisited,"
CORE Discussion Papers
1999041, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
[Downloadable!]
Gianmarco Ottaviano & Takatoshi Tabuchi & Jacques-Francois Tissse, 1999.
"Agglomeration and Trade Revisited,"
CIRJE F-Series
CIRJE-F-65, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
[Downloadable!]
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