Empirical Evidence of Capital Mobility in the EU New Member States

This research is focused on the analysis of capital mobility indicators in the EU new member states as capital market union is one of the newest initiative in the EU. We found the most integrated countries are Hungary, the Czech R., Croatia and Estonia. Econometric analysis emphasized the main determinants of capital account openness and of FDI inward stock. The analysis indicates that the level of development, intra-EU trade and FDI inward stock have a positive impact on capital account openness (mobility), while inflation has a negative influence. The GDP per capita, intra-EU trade and capital account openness have positive impact on FDI inward stock while inflation and gross fixed capital formation have negative influence. Unexpectedly, fiscal variables and interest rates do not have a significant impact on capital openness. The results show that there is room for improvement in all countries that would enable more favorable access to capital.