Gradual, not shock, therapy is the right route to development in transition countries, argues the author. We have two natural experiments to learn from.

Several years have passed since the failure of shock therapy to create a vibrant market economy in Russia. Some of the architects of the original plans have admitted that their strategies were naive, incomplete, or excessively ambitious. Others still insist there were no viable alternatives. In...

It is probably the most important issue in economics. How do economies grow? And for a few centuries, one traditional model has prevailed. Economies grow through specializing in industries, through division of labor, and through standardization. But one of the leading thinkers of our time, the...