The stimulation of private saving is essential to both stabilization and structural adjustment in the transition economies. Private saving in these countries has declined sharply since independence, and this decline has been a factor in the onset of extreme inflation because governments have...

Economists and policymakers in the Soviet Union before its dissolution were concerned about the growth of the"ruble overhang."The concern was that the rationing of consumer goods evident in prior years had led to an excess of purchasing power in households. Price liberalization was expected to...

The author demonstrates that sustained inflation is a predictable response to price liberalization in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The author models the phenomenon in a dynamic macroeconomic framework,and demonstrates the immediate price jump followed by sustained inflation that has...

Many economies of the former Soviet Union have experienced cash shortages: people with demand and savings deposits in the banking system are unable to convert them into currency. Usually this is attributed to the common use of the ruble. The author argues otherwise. According to him: (a) cash...