Eastern European transition economies and their trade preferences

Abstract

Seven eastern European countries - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Latvia - examined in this paper have a common goal - to gain acceptance into the European Union. This paper examines individual trade policy preferences across the seven post-communist transition economies, focusing on skilled versus unskilled workers' trade preferences. The paper also explores the effects of nationalism on trade preferences, as well as the relationship between individual trade preferences and variables describing personal status other than skill level, such as sex, age, marital status, citizenship and union membership. In addition, this paper investigates the pros and cons of the EU expansion, as well as people's views on the expansion. The empirical results in this paper indicate that skilled labour is less supportive of trade protection and more supportive of trade liberalization than unskilled labour.