Foreign Direct Investments in the Post-socialist Economies of Central and Eastern Europe

After the collapse of the socialist economies and the planned system in the early 1990s, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEEC) developed various strategies to attract foreign investment to achieve sustained economic growth and to engage with global trade chains, aspect which was limited during the socialist period. The objectives of the article are to identify the influence and benefits that foreign direct investments bring to the economy of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that joined the European Union in 2004, as well as their impact on the rate of economic growth, labour productivity, unemployment rate and an average gross salary. The research methodology used is the multiple regression model with panel data, using an independent variable, foreign direct investments and three dependent variables, labour productivity, economic growth rate and average gross salary. Previous research shows that membership of the European Union has increased foreign direct investment flows to new member states by up to 28%. As the article analyses foreign investment in Central and Eastern European countries that joined the European Union after 2014, it was evident that they had a positive economic shock, the relationship between foreign direct investment, change in gross average wage, labour productivity and economic growth being evident by the demonstrations found in the case study.