Regional patterns of industry location in transition countries: does the integration with the European Union matter?

Regional patterns of industry location in transition countries: does economic integration with the European Union matter?, Regional Studies 41, 747–764. Recent developments in international trade theory predict that increased globalization will be associated with increased locational concentration of economic activities, and hence increased specialization of national and regional economies. Relatively little empirical evidence exists about whether these predictions are correct, especially as regards Central and Eastern Europe. The paper analyses the interplay between economic integration and industry location in four candidate countries during the 1990s. It demonstrates that economic integration with the European Union has changed industry re-location processes within candidate countries, giving rise to a spatial organization of manufacturing productions which is less inward-oriented and more evenly distributed across regions than it was at the beginning of the transition process.