F02 - International Economic Order and IntegrationReturn

Together with mainly economic factors influencing the migration decisions, there is also a migration potential which is unique for every country and that largely pre-determines the outgoing migrations or labour mobility decisions. This paper compares the migration potential and migration decisions for the Czech Republic and Poland using the data for inter-regional and rural-urban migrations. These data that can be used as a proxy for migration potential, are very useful in predicting the propensity to international migration. We come to conclusions that migration potential and the propensity to migrate as a reaction to worsening of the economic conditions at home are highly correlated. The comparative analysis shows that while Poles are quite sensitive to worsening economic conditions at home, Czechs posses lower value of migration potential and therefore are not so inclined to migrations. The results might explain the high volume of migration from Poland after the EU 2004 enlargement.

This paper presents the analysis of unconditional b and s convergence among the ten European countries that accessed the European Union in 2004. Unconditional b convergence means that the less developed countries (with lower GDP per capita) grow faster than the more developed countries (with higher GDP per capita). s convergence exists when income differentiation among economies decreases over time. Our results confirm the existence of both types of convergence in the second half of the 1990s and the 2000s. The poorer New EU Member States grew generally faster than the richer New EU Member States. As a result, the income gap among these countries has decreased (although it still remains quite large). The convergence occurred at the rate of 2.87% in the years 1995-2006 and 3.23% in 1996-2006. This result is very similar to the results of other analyses on the subject.

New Regionalism differs markedly from previous development of regional integration. These changes are connected mainly to the necessity of regionalism to react to changing global conditions, new world political order and entrance of new actors into regional integration (i.e. states and superpowers that did not take part in previous waves at all or on a limited scale, i.e. China). This applies also for the transforming countries, at which the regionalism can be observed as late as in its third wave during the 1990s (which applies for the Central and Eastern Europe as well as for the Commonwealth of Independent States' countries) or even later (which applies for China). The aim of this paper is to compare the role of the New Regionalism in most eminent cases in the three parts of the transforming region: in Central and Eastern Europe, in the Commonwealth of Independent States' region and in East Asia. As cases, the Czech Republic, Russia and China were selected, which should enable the study of not only regional aspects, but also selected global impacts of regionalism.

As a consequence of the third wave of regionalism, the so called new regionalism, a marked increase in the number of regional groupings can be observed worldwide which makes the preferential relations between states even more complicated and complex. Within these relations those in which a regional grouping is one partner are the most complex. One of such complex relationships, which did not come to being during the third wave of regionalism but was strongly supported by it, is subregionalism - simply said, overlapping of regional integrations. This development can be especially observed in the regions, where a region-wide integration scheme is being formed - such as the European Union in Europe. The aim of this study is to analyze a current state and development of subregionalism within the European Union (EU) and to analyze the effects of this phenomenon in the region. The Czech Republic, as the new member of the EU, is a member of several subregional groupings in Europe. Special regard will be taken to those groupings, where the Czech Republic is an active member. Especially the future development of these groupings will be the main expected outcome of this study. An institutional and political view (analysis of agreements and documents of regional groupings) is the primal approach of this study to the problem of subregionalism and its aim is to identify integration's state, future and relation to the dominant integration. As regionalism is the main theoretical approach of this study, it will examine only the institutionalised integration within the area and will thus omit the regional processes within the EU (the so called euroregions) or the cross-boarder cooperation between particular pairs of member states.

EU enlargement is hardly to be seen as the major push factor for migration. There are mainly economic factors that influence the migration decisions. Besides it seems that there is a migration potential, unique for every country, that pre-determines the migration or labour mobility. In our paper we (i) analyze the impact of internal economic factors, such as GDP growth, unemployment and wages on the emigration rate and (ii) compare the migration potential for the country distinguished by the high ratio of outward migrations (represented by Ireland) with those of the post-communist economy as well as the ""new"" EU member (represented by the Czech Republic). We come to conclusions that economic factors have the decisive role on pre-determining the migrations and that migration potential and the propensity to migrate as a reaction to worsening of the economic conditions at home are highly correlated. These can explain why there was no mass emigration from the EU ""new"" Member States to the ""old"" Member States after the recent enlargement, as far as it comes to migration potential needed for inducing such labour moves. The potential emigrants from new EU Member States are simply not ready to go to wealthier Member States in search of better wage and employment opportunities.

The EU-25 will start operating on May 1, 2004. This paper reviews the position of the new Member States (NMS) in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) with respect to future adoption of euro. It argues that further integration in this area is much more about the deepening of the political integrity of the EU than about lowering transaction costs. However, a debate on the political and economic implications resulting from the adoption of euro by the NMS is full of unsolved issues. The central one is to define the possible scenario of the path to the euro. It implies actions on both sides: the NMS need to implement many economic reforms and enhance the political debate on the benefits of the euro adoption. The EU side must proceed with reforms, including the redefinition of the Stability and Growth Pact. The lack of reforms may hamper the political position of the EU.

This article addresses the issue of macroeconomic policies in the pre-accession period. The key theme is an assessment of the relationship between the real and nominal convergence of the candidate countries towards the EU. Support for real convergence cannot procced on a long-term basis in contradiction to the nominal convergence criteria. Despite a renewal of growth in 1999, a whole range of persisting structural problems, chiefly in the fiscal area, confirm the benefit of voluntary pursuance of the nominal concergence criteria. Fof the central bank, the inflation criterion is particularly relevant. The issue of catchingup with the EU price level is discussed from this point of view. Neither the theoretical models (the law of one price and the Balassa-Samuelson effect) nor the empirical evidence provide arguments for abandoning the efforts for price stability. The most appropriate monetary policy regime linking the interests of monetary policy and government economic policy is inflation targeting.