Key sectors in the post-communist CEE economies: What does the transition data say?

This paper is the first study dedicated to the extensive examination of the dynamics of key sectors in CEE transition economies based on an application of the WIOD – an extensive database recently launched under the patronage of European Commission, Research Directorate General. We propose a modified approach to key sector analysis which extends applicability of the traditional methodology to the case of examining groups of countries over a period of time. More formally, the research was based on the maximum entropy decomposition of the Leontief inverse applied to the input–output tables covering the period 1995–2011. The results allow formulating the list of sectors, which, more or less, have preserved the status of the key sectors in CEE transition economies. In turn some sectors, especially the manufacturing ones, have significantly derailed while the sector of construction as well as the financial sphere and travel and tourism related sectors, have clearly gained in importance.