Soft budget constraints (SBCs) are a persistent feature of transition economies and have been blamed for i.a. a lack of fiscal consolidation and sluggish growth. EU eastward enlargement has - among other things - been conditioned on tackling SBCs. This paper analyzes such outside conditionality...

Criteria for evaluation of systems of fiscal federalism are derived from the current state of the theory of fiscal federalism. In a second step we provide an overview of developments of fiscal federalism systems in OECD countries highlighting some existing trends. Third, an overview of Russia?s...

The rapid changes in the transition economies must be evaluated in a comparative context. This paper provides a comprehensive comparative analysis using a large panel data set of market economies as a reference point. We wish to establish the extent and speed with which the structures of the...

In this paper we used the procedures developed in the Kumar and Russell (2002) growth-accounting study to examine cross-country growth during the 1990's. Using a data set comprising developed, newly industrialized, developing and transitional economies, we decomposed the growth of output per...

Six years into post-socialist economic reform, a division has appeared between the Central and Eastern European reform countries (CEE) and the CIS-countries. Whereas the former are dedicated to introducing the institutions of a capitalist market economy, the European CIS-countries (Russia,...

This paper analyses the issues of regulatory reform in the energy industry of post- Soviet countries. We identify the characteristics of the transformation that these countries go through: it is the introduction of a) a new legal culture and b) a capitalist rationality of production in societies...

Shipbuilding has changed from a heavy industry to become a capital- and technologyintensive activity over the last decades. While Japanese, South Korean and Western European yards dominate the merchant shipbuilding market so far, Eastern European yards are increasingly active, in particular in...

National science and technology (S&T) systems are mentioned, in politics as well as in science, as a condition for the competitiveness of domestic high technology industries. An active S&T policy has, therefore, great importance for governments. Eastern European countries see, in an active S&T...

National science and technology (S&T) systems are often mentioned as a condition for competitiveness of high technology sectors. Therefore, public S&T policies should actively support the development of national S&T systems. In particular in Eastern Europe an active S&T policy is often demanded...