Economic integration, trade, investment and sectoral analyses (Work Package 5)
The pace of economic growth has lagged behind other emerging economies during two decades: only in the early 2000’s there has been an improvement. This lag has translated into social unrest and despair among the workforce, creating major challenges for the governments in the region. Imprudent macroeconomic policies have fuelled inflation and poor economic integration has translated into trade and investment restrictive policies, with tariffs in some sectors averaging two digit levels. Governments of the region face the challenge of boosting integration and cooperation, developing new activities and strengthening the existent ones. This work package will first assess whether fiscal and monetary policies have been growth-inducing and stability-facilitating; then it will quantify the potential of the region in terms of trade and investment flows. In this aspect, the research will deovte special attention to selected sectors of importance for the MED 11, among which tourism, agriculture and fisheries given the fact they are the main source of income for the region.
This work package is led by Dr. Luc de Wulf from the Center for Economic and Social Research (CASE), a polish research centre specialized in international and transition economics.
