Summary: The aim of the project is to create a depository of quantitative data about societal and economic transformations in the regions of the three Baltic states during the last hundred years and provide a quantitative analysis of the long run trends (since 1920) in regional disparities.

This project breaks new interdisciplinary ground in the socio-economic history of the Baltic countries, providing for the first time cross-time and cross-country comparable gross domestic product (GDP) data series for all three countries, covering the complete 100 years period since the end of independence wars. Applying a methodology tested in recent research on the economic development of Europe‘s regions since 1900, it will decompose these series down to a regional level to explore trends in the economic and social disparities between regions inside of each Baltic state.

The implementation of the project will include two tasks: (1) creation of data depository with data on economic and social differences between regions of Baltic countries and (2) analysis of long run trends (since 1920) in cross-regional economic and human development disparities. As a result, a collective monography and 8 high-quality publications will be prepared.

Project No: EEA-RESEARCH-174

Implementation period: 01.05.2021.-30.04.2024.

Funding/ programme: European Economic Area (EEA) Grants, Research and Education, Baltic Research Programme

HESPI role: Project promoter/ lead partner

Cooperation partners: Norwegian School of Economics, Norway; Vilnius University, Lithuania; University of Tartu, Estonia

Project funding: 999092,70 EUR

Project scientific manager (e-mail): Gatis Krūmiņš (gatis.krumins@va.lv)

Involved staff: HESPI research staff Jānis Šiliņš, Ilmārs Mežs, Jānis Bikše, SSII research staff Ginta Majore, Andris Lapāns

Further information: https://eeagrants.lv/; https://eeagrants.org/

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