The financial systems inherited by post-communist countries are damaging their economic development and make impossible macroeconomic policies aimed both at growth and economic stabilization. This incompatibility is illustrated by recent Polish experiences under both the last communist and the...

Central European governments see foreign direct investment (FDI) as one of the main macroeconomic mechanisms for stabilizing the volatile process of economic and political transition. What are the favorite destinations of FDI in Central Europe? What are the motives of Western investors? Why does...

Various market-type reforms have been introduced into the economies of Eastern Europe in recent years. These have often been warmly applauded in the West, but their success so far has been at best marginal. Without radical changes in the fundamentals of the Soviet-type economic system such...

The countries of Eastern Europe need to raise considerable finance not only in order to improve their balances of payments but also to adjust the structure of their economies over the long term to changed internal and external conditions. The adjustment measures require capital, but the Eastern...

The reaction of the Polish leadership to the strikes in August 1980 was to promise reforms, and a scheme of reforms has been presented in the meantime. What would be the most comprehensive attempt yet at transforming the present system, which is geared to the Soviet model, and at launching the...