The paper presents a comparative analysis of the resource-rich transition economies of Mongolia and the southern republics of the former Soviet Union. For Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, the ability to earn revenue from cotton exports allowed them to avoid reform. Oil in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan...

An increasingly important part of international trade consists of fragmentation of the production process, with differing tasks in the global value chain (GVC) being undertaken in different locations. The paper traces the origins of the GVC phenomenon, attempts to measure the significance of...

Until 1991 Central Asia was part of the integrated economic space of the Soviet Union without borders and with a relatively efficient transport network, but oriented toward the needs of the Soviet economy. The role of the Central Asian republics in the Soviet division of labor was as providers...

This paper analyses resource management experiences of seven resource-rich Asian transition economies. The countries’ experiences illustrate that a series of hurdles need to be surmounted to benefit from resource abundance, and that neither the similar initial institutions nor those created in...

This paper reviews the experience of the five Central Asian countries in the two decades since independence. In the 1990s the five countries looked like a natural experiment. They had similar initial conditions, but different transition strategies. Today that does not appear to have been a...

Central Asian governments frequently express the goal of economic diversification, and specifically of diversifying their agricultural sector, but with little actual impact. Diversification has not happened because high trade costs discourage farmers, potential foreign investors and others from...

After becoming independent in 1991, the five Central Asian countries pursued differing transition paths from the defunct central planning. This paper analyses the connection between economic policies and performance during the 1990s and 2000s. Performance over the two decades has been determined...

For the Central Asian countries the dissolution of the Soviet Union led to economic disintegration as old coordination mechanisms disappeared and new national borders appeared. This paper analyses why it has been difficult to coordinate aid for regional cooperation projects (e.g., on the Aral...