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This essay explores how the Baltic republics responded to the crisis of 2008–2011. We argue that while there are significant differences in how the Baltic economies responded to the crisis, these responses not only remain within the neo-liberal policy paradigm characteristic of the region from the early 1990s, but that the crisis radicalised Baltic economies and particularly their fiscal stance. We show that there are a number of unique features in all three Baltic republics' political economies that made such a radicalisation possible. However, these unique features make it almost impossible for the Baltic experience to be replicable anywhere else in Europe.

To overcome the Great Recession that started in 2008, the European Union (EU) has opted for a strategy that combines austerity-driven fiscal and experimental ‘growth-enhancing’ research, development, and innovation (RDI) policies supported by different coordination mechanisms. We analyse the experiences of four Central and Eastern European economies—the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Slovenia—in implementing this strategy. Given the weak policy capacities both in the EU institutions and CEE economies to draft and coordinate such novel RDI policies, we find that the implementation of this strategy is more challenging under the current EU fiscal and economic policy coordination system than assumed by the EU.