Regional Convergence in Central and Eastern European Countries: A Multidimensional Approach

The paper examines the dynamics of regional income at the NUTS3 level of the new EU Member States from Central and Eastern Europe in the years 1998–2005. The authors apply a wide range of methods and tools including classical beta and sigma convergence analysis supplemented by transition matrices, kernel density estimations and spatial autocorrelation statistics. Results of such a multi-dimensional empirical study reveal some previously unrecognized patterns of regional growth in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). Well-acknowledged metropolization and marginalization processes that cause regional divergence at the national scale are accompanied by the following processes. Firstly, at the macroregional scale, regional convergence has been observed as a result of differences in growth rates between individual countries. Secondly, at the national scale, petrification of existing regional structures has been prevailing in majority of the countries. Furthermore, weak convergence of clubs has been observed separately among the richest metropolitan regions and between the group of the poorest regions. In general, the polycentric spatial structure of the macroregion has reduced the impact of rapid growth of rich capital city-regions on convergence processes. Simultaneously, diffusion of development processes had a rather limited range and polarization in larger metropolitan regions have been a characteristic feature of CEECs.     

An Absolute Chronological Framework for the Central‐Eastern European Eneolithic

Bayesian analysis of a large corpus of radiocarbon measurements from central and eastern Europe has been performed in order to revisit and modify archaeological models of the spatio‐temporal development of three Eneolithic cultures (the Funnel Beaker, the Globular Amphora and the Corded Ware cultures). While the results place the origins of the Funnel Beaker and the Corded Ware cultures in central‐eastern Poland, it was impossible to specify the place of origin of the Globular Amphora complex.     

Use of a general ecological model for the reconstruction of prehistoric economy: The Hallstatt period culture of northwestern Poland

An ecological model of prehistoric economy is presented and illustrated in the case of cultures dated to the Hallstatt period of the Iron Age. The central theorem of the model is that a self-sufficient population must have such extractive efficiency as to supply the population with an amount of matter and energy sufficient to cover all its needs (nutritional, “hygenic”, technological, and organizational), under given environmental conditions. Appropriate quantitative measures of environmental conditions, extractive efficiency, and population needs are proposed, and relaitons between them presented. The model is applied to an actual case of “Biskupin-type” fortified settlements (about 500 B.C., northwest Poland) and their fall. This application is based on quantitative estimates of human needs and prehistoric extractive efficiency.