The Middle-Income Trap in Central and Eastern Europe

Yaman Kouli was a visiting scientist in 2018 and 2019 at the UMR Sirice 8138 in Paris, funded via a scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation. From October 2019 on, he has worked as a research assistant at the Heinrich-Heine-University in Düsseldorf. His fields of expertise are Poland’s economic history during the 20th century, the knowledge-based economy and European economic integration before 1914.

Introduction: Transformation of the Transformation? The Middle Income Trap and the Search for a New Development Strategy in the Post-Communist States of Central and Eastern Europe

Yaman Kouli and Uwe Müller



Part I: Historical Legacies



Chapter 1. Poland’s Communist Heritage and Its Impact on Post-1990 Economic Development

Yaman Kouli



Chapter 2. Institutional Development and Growth as Outputs of Early Transition Policies

Tal Kadayer



Part II: Development Strategies on the Economic, Entrepreneurial and Individual Level



Chapter 3. The Middle-Income Trap and Its Narrow Escape Hatches: Dependent Development and FDI-Led Growth in Romania

Cornel Ban and Zoltán Mihály



Chapter 4. Between Domestic Entrepreneurship and Global Technology Chains: Upgrading Paths of Two Large IT Firms from Poland

Grzegorz Lechowski



Chapter 5. The Value of Return Migration - The Case of Bulgaria

Birgit Glorius



Part III: The Impact of European Integration



Chapter 6. The Winners and Losers of Economic Openness: Eastern Europe’s Growth Path Post-1989

Kiril Kosse



Chapter 7. Developmentalist Illusion? EU Cohesion Policy, Dependent Development, and the State in East Central Europe

Daniel Šitera



Chapter 8. East-Central Europe: The Eternal Periphery of the EU?

Christian Schweiger



Chapter 9. Cohesion Policy for Escaping Middle-Income Trap

Andrea Filippetti and Raffaele Spallone



Conclusion: Conclusion and Outlook

Uwe Müller