micro data on men to estimate returns to human capital under the communist wage grid and during the transition to a market … economy. We use data from the Czech Republic because it is a leading transition economy in which the communist grid remained … firms during the transition. Our estimates also indicate that men's wage-experience profile was concave in both regimes and …

Using survey data from 28 transition countries, we test for the complementarity and substitutability of market …-relevant skills and institutions. We show that democracy and good governance complement market skills in transition economies. Under …

, but increased slightly during the transition, while job destruction rose markedly. Heterogeneity in firm employment change … during the socialist period, while they have made a strong positive contribution during the transition. Privatization and …

communism (1989), in mid-transition (1996) and in late/post-transition (2002). We show: dramatic increases in returns to … returns to education obtained during communism vs. transition; no change in wage-experience profiles over time; and similar … the planners did; all the adjustment occurred in early transition and was driven by market forces rather than private …

private sector. The transition is shown to be costly in that it entails unemployment and a deterioration of the fiscal balance …. The interaction of fiscal constraints with the transition process is examined. It is shown that fiscal constraints may … induce the government to maintain the state sector, slowing the speed of transition, and could jeopardize the eventual …