Central bankers and financial regulators in Central and Eastern Europe are among the most active proponents of macroprudential policy in the EU. Drawing upon the Dependent Market Economy (DME) framework, this presentation explores how and why the EU’s five DMEs — Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Romania — have used macroprudential policy to manage the uneven effects of European integration. While structural and institutional factors define the available policy space, policy choices within that space depend upon how domestic actors translate macroprudential ideas into their local contexts. Eastern regulators’ desires, abilities, and methods of leveraging macroprudential tools are affected by their domestic financial markets and the extent to which financial nationalist politicians have gained control over policymaking. Overall, this analysis raises the policy-relevant issues of macroprudential measures’ structural conditions, social impact, and potential to weaken European integration.
Dora Piroska is a visiting professor in the Department of International Relations, who specializes in international and comparative political economy. Previously, Dr. Piroska taught at the University of Texas (Austin) and Corvinus. She publishes in New Political Economy, Third World Thematics, Competition and Change, Journal of Common Market Studies, and in edited volumes by Oxford University Press, Routledge, and several Hungarian outlets. This presentation is based on research co-authored with Yuliya Gorelkina (Sciences Po) and Juliet Johnson (McGill).