Reforms in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union in Light of the East Asian Experiences

During the past five years, there has been an important international debate over the style of market reforms in the former centrally planned economies of East Asia, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. The economic performance across regions, summarized in Table 1, could not be more disparate, with rapid economic growth and low inflation in the East Asia transition economies, compared with sharp declines in GDP and high inflation in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (hereafter combined as EEFSU). This disparity has given rise to a plethora of theories about the underlying differences in the two regions, ranging over cultural, political, and economic factors.