Industrial growth, economic integration and structural change: evidence from the EU new member-states regions

The article evaluates the pre-accession experience of new European Union member-states, coming from the former Eastern bloc, estimating an empirical model used to account for regional-industrial employment growth in the early transition period, 1991-2000. The results obtained indicate the adverse impact of the economic integration dynamics and detect the interplay among structural characteristics and geographical coordinates that determines the relative winners. The findings of the article have important implications for both theory and policy.