The transition to market-based economic systems in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union involves fundamental shifts in the allocation of resources and deep changes in the structure of production and employment. This paper uses a simple model of economic...

This paper investigates the relative importance of three sets of factors - initial conditions, macroeconomic stabilisation and structural reforms - as determinants of growth in transition economies during the first ten years. We ask whether countries that defied the odds, given by their initial...

This paper offers the first comprehensive analysis of legal change in the protection of shareholder and creditor rights in transition economies and its impact on the propensity of firms to raise external finance. Following La Porta et al. (1998), the paper constructs an expanded set of legal...

The contagion effects emanating from the recent East Asian turmoil provide an interesting test of the strength of the foundations for macroeconomic and financial stability laid by the post-communist transition and how this strength varies across central and eastern Europe and the CIS. The...