Bruszt, L., & Langbein, J. (2025). Building a Transnational Developmental State in Europe: Lessons from the Big Bang enlargement for the next integration round. Journal of European Public Policy, 32(12), 2973–2998.
Abstract: Why should the EU care about the developmental externalities of enlargement? To answer this question, we bridge the enlargement literature, which studies rule transfer prior to accession, and the political economy literature, which examines how economic actors from less developed EU member states adapt to these rules in the post-accession period. Each has its […]
Julia Langbein
Julia Langbein is senior researcher at the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS), Berlin, where she leads the Political Economy and Integration research cluster. In her research, she deals with the integration of (semi-) peripheral economies into transnational markets and value chains and the consequences for their economic and political development. Her regional focus lies […]
Langbein, J., Cenusa, D., & Guruli, I. (2023). EU trade liberalisation, sectoral coalitions and development: insights from Moldova and Georgia. Journal of European Integration, 46(2), 213–234.
Abstract: This paper contributes to the literature on EU trade policy by introducing insights from the political economy literature on development to the study of how EU trade liberalisation affects development in trading partners. Drawing on a comparison of EU trade liberalisation with Moldova and Georgia, we argue that the type of coalition between public […]
Langbein, J., Gazizullin, I., & Naumenko, D. (2020). Trade liberalisation and opening in post-soviet limited access orders. East European Politics, 37(1), 139–158.
Abstract: How does trade liberalisation shape post-Soviet Limited Access Orders (LAOs) where dominant elites restrict access to political and economic resources for the sake of private gains? By drawing on the case of trade liberalisation between the EU and Ukraine, this paper argues that in post-Soviet LAOs the effect of trade liberalisation largely depends on […]
Bruszt, L. and Langbein, J. (co-editors) (2020) “Market integration and room for development in the peripheries”- Special Issue in Review of International Political Economy Volume 27, Issue 5
Abstract: According to the dominating perspective in the literature, transnational market integration has the uniform effect of decreasing the room for development in peripheral economies that do not have the economic and political power of countries like China or Russia. Challenging this perspective, this Special Issue (SI) contrasts different integration strategies yielding dramatically different effects […]
Bruszt, L., & Langbein, J. (2020). Manufacturing development: how transnational market integration shapes opportunities and capacities for development in Europe’s three peripheries: Introduction to the special issue . Review of International Political Economy, 27(5), 996–1019.
Abstract: According to the dominating perspective in the literature, transnational market integration has the uniform effect of decreasing the room for development in peripheral economies that do not have the economic and political power of countries like China or Russia. Challenging this perspective, this Special Issue (SI) contrasts different integration strategies yielding dramatically different effects […]
Langbein, J. (2019). Shallow market integration and weak developmental capacities: Ukraine’s pathway from periphery to periphery. Review of International Political Economy, 27(5), 1126–1146.
Abstract: How do transnational integration regimes (TIRs) shape domestic developmental capacities to benefit from trade integration? Some scholars acknowledge the passive influence TIRs can have on domestic capacities to spur development. Others conceive of TIRs as active agents of change but disagree as to whether their effects are positive or negative. This paper takes issue […]
Bruszt, L., & Langbein, J. (2017). Varieties of dis-embedded liberalism. EU integration strategies in the Eastern peripheries of Europe. Journal of European Public Policy, 24(2), 297–315.
Abstract: In contrast to the post-1945 integration of Western Europe in the global economic system, coined by John Ruggie as embedded liberalism, the integration of the Eastern peripheries happens in the framework of a new liberal regional settlement. The latter takes large parts of the management of the economy out of the hands of states […]
Langbein, J. (2015). Transnationalization and regulatory change in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood : Ukraine between Brussels and Moscow (Routledge, 230 pp.). Routledge.
Description: Regulatory reforms in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood countries are not as sluggish as often perceived. Rule enforcement is happening despite the presence of domestic veto players who favour the status quo, the lack of EU membership perspective and the presence of Russia as an alternative governance provider. Using Ukraine as a primary case study, […]
Langbein, J., & Börzel, T. A. (eds) (2013). Explaining policy change in the European Union’s Eastern Neighbourhood. Special Issue in Europe-Asia Studies, 65(4) (also published as an anthology by Routledge, 2014)
Abstract: This Introduction discusses the conventional wisdoms dominating the scholarship on policy change in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood countries and summarises the major findings of this collection. Drawing upon the empirical evidence underpinning the contributions to our collection, we argue that compliance with or convergence to EU policies happens despite high costs, limited capacities and […]