This paper attempts the following two questions, both with reference to the response of the Polish economy to the stabilization and liberalization plan of January 1, 1990: why was the fall in output much larger and the inflation rate much higher than anticipated? Was the contraction of aggregate...

Pension systems and, as ratios of GDP, pension expenditures show large variation among countries. This variation reflects, above all, demographic factors and differences in the level of insurance protection, the latter tending to increase with the level of development. The focus of this paper is...

In this paper we develop a new model of growth accounting and use it to analyse the long-term growth of the US and the USSR. The technique is designed to capture the indirect or "feedback" contributions of technological change and labour input growth. These indirect contributions arise from the...

This paper discusses the key hypotheses which Joseph Stiglitz proposed, in his wide-ranging critique of the 'Washington Consensus', with regard to transition reforms and economic polices in China and Russia. The primary purpose is to evaluate the Stiglitz perspective in the light of empirical...

The paper discusses the reasons for the observed variation in the sequencing, speed and content of reform policies, in the 1990s, among 25 post-socialist countries of Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union. It argues that these differences, while considerable in the early 1990s, did not...

This paper considers the impact on sectoral outputs and employments of rapid and large changes in relative prices, such as those which occurred in transition economies during the 1990s. A simple general equilibrium model is developed in which price changes are induced by a tax reform and...

This paper contains the text of a guest lecture delivered by Dr Gomulka to the Nordic Finance Committee at its meeting in Lillehammer, Norway on 21 January 1994. The paper looks at empirical evidence, both economic and political, from the whole area of Central and Eastern Europe and the Former...

This paper attempts the following two questions, both with reference to the response of the Polish economy to the stabilization and liberalization plan of January 1, 1990: why was the fall in output much larger and the inflation rate much higher than anticipated? Was the contraction of aggregate...

The primary purpose of this short paper is to consider and give preliminary answers, with respect to the main EU candidate countries, to the following questions: 1. Has macroeconomic stability already been, or is soon to be, accomplished? 2. Do these candidate countries comply with the most...