Trade in Services in the Central and East European Countries

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Roman Römisch

wiiw Research Report No. 274, January 2001
122 pages including 68 Tables and 5 Figures

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Trade in services, although often neglected by theory and empiricism, plays a quite influential role in the balance of payments of most countries. In the case of the CEE countries, services trade also enters another dimension: it is a helpful means in the modernization process of the CEE economies whose (producer) services, as of 1989, were far from the development level typical of well-functioning market economies.

The first part of the present paper gives a theoretical and empirical overview of the services trade in eight CEECs, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. The second part of the paper focuses on the services trade of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland with the EU in general and Austria in particular, thus also allowing for an examination of the advantages and disadvantages Austria has vis-à-vis the EU in trading services with the CEECs.

 

Keywords: Central and East European countries, foreign trade, trade in services, balances of payments

JEL classification: F14, F15, P52

Countries covered: Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, SEE, Visegrad countries

Research Areas: International Trade, Competitiveness and FDI, Sectoral studies


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