Certainly types of laws and institutions shape economic behavior in market economies. In Eastern Europe, these general rules and market institutions are often nonexistent and a major problem is to create market economies while simultaneously building the supporting institutions. The author...

Why do economic reforms fail in Soviet-type systems despite the obvious interest of ruling groups in improving the performance of their ailing economies? The author applies a property-rights-based analysis stressing modes of rent-maximization by ruling groups as a crucial explanatory variable....