Publications - Monographs and Scientific Edited Books

In the last two decades, the Slovak economy has undergone a concentrated period of structural changes. Many structural changes were realized in Western developed economies in long-run; however, in Slovakia, they took place in the reduced period. In many cases, the changes were in a similar direction as they occurred in more developed countries. However, there are some cases where the change occurred in opposite direction: in this case, a structural change was not in line with the developments in the developed countries. This book was created as part of the research project focused on structural changes in the economy transition from the middle to high level developed economy. We assume that the Slovak economy is now on this threshold. We also assume that a switch to a high level of development is associated with a set of specific structural changes. The detection of these structural changes, identification of their implementation barriers and policies for their support is part of the research project outcome (this book is the partial outcome of the research project as well). True, this book was created approximately only in one-third of dealing with the total research project, so it does not have the ambition to testify the entire set of indicated problems. The contributions (chapters) mainly explore the links of differently understood structural changes or the links between the structural changes and other phenomena or policies. We deal with the issues like:

• Links of structural changes and public finances;

• Links of changes in the composition of economic activities and changes in the composition of income;

• Links of structural changes and the use of EU funds;

• Links of weaker spots of economy structure and weak spots of structural policy;

• Links of structural changes and employment;

• Links of structural changes, growth and the process of specialization or diversification;

• Formation of “base“ for the favored structural changes (R&D, business environment, use of public revenues and expenditures, cohesion policy, etc.)

These contributions demonstrate how differently can be the structural problems topic approached. However, these problems have their interconnections. The structural changes are not self-oriented isolated processes. The structural changes should not be understood only as a change in share of an industry at the output of the economy. They are essential accompanying phenomenon of economic growth (the economy grows through structural changes). Optimally, they are linked with phenomena which enhance the socio-economic parameters of society. The authors would like to contribute to the identification of these interconnections by this book.