What Happened to the Economic Convergence of Central and Eastern Europe After the Global Financial Crisis?

During the boom years 2000–2007, the new Central and East European (CEE) members of the European Union (EU) had more than twice as high economic growth as the 15 countries that were members of the EU before 2004. From 2010, however, their growth rates have been mediocre though still higher than those of the older EU members. This paper investigates seven structural benchmarks, fiscal burden, tax system, labor markets, education, pensions, governance, and research and development. The CEE countries are continuing to perform quite well in all these regards apart from research and development. Another cause of concern is large emigration. Thus, growth of GDP per capita instead of GDP growth looks much better for the CEE countries. No middle-income trap is apparent.