Are property rights obtained through legally dubious means forever tainted with original sin or can rightholders make their ill-gotten gains legitimate by doing good works? This is a critical question for developing countries (and Russia in particular) where privatization is often opaque and...

Rzonca and Cizkowicz (2003) notice that by construction the reform indicators are bound from the above, and the resulting time series characteristics of these variables render estimates of coefficients in growth regressions spurious. We illustrate this issue further, applying econometric tests....

The present fiscal di fficulties of many countries amplify the call for structural reforms. To provide stylized facts on how reforms worked in the past, we quantitatively review 60 studies estimating the relation between reforms and growth. These studies examine structural reforms carried out in...

In this paper the impact of market reforms on economic growth has been analyzed using the panel data for 26 post-socialist economies over the period between 1989 and 2005. Taking into account the dynamic properties of the data, the concepts of cointegration and equilibrium correction model for...

In explaining the corporate governance performance of post-socialist companies, this article identifies four factors of influence: (1) pressure from majority shareholders, (2) pressure from outside minority shareholders, (3) pressure resulting from internationalization/globalization and (4)...

This paper provides an illustration of the changing tolerance for inequality in a context of radical political and economic transformation and rapid economic growth. We focus on the Polish experience of transition and explore self-declared attitudes of the citizens. Using monthly representative...

This article examines the political conditions shaping the creation of new institutional capabilities. It analyzes bank sector reforms in the 1990s in three leading postcommunist democracies - Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic. It shows how different political approaches to economic...

This paper provides an illustration of the changing tolerance for inequality in a context of radical political and economic transformation and rapid economic growth. We focus on the Polish experience of transition and explore self-declared attitudes of the citizens. Using monthly representative...

Using panel data for twenty-seven post-communist economies between 1987-2003, we examine the nexus of relationships between inequality, fiscal capacity (defined as the ability to raise taxes efficiently) and the political regime. Investigating the impact of political reform we find that full...

Economists have used cross-national regression analysis to argue that postcommunist economic failure is the result of inadequate adherence liberal economic policies. Sociologists have relied on case study data to show that postcommunist economic failure is the outcome of too close adherence to...