As developing countries and economies in transition have relied on deregulated, competitive markets to spur growth, their central banks have shifted toward using open market operations as a tool of monetary policy. To be most effective, such operations require supportive changes in other policy...

This paper examines the causes of the large buildup of enterprise arrears in Russia during 1992, and evaluates policy options to deal with them. Noting the experience of. Eastern European countries, the paper emphasizes that the settlement of arrears through wholesale extension of credit would...

This paper develops a model of the process of reallocation of labor from the state sector to the private sector. When growth is exogenously determined, we show that in the initial stages of transition unemployment will rise over time. After a critical stage in the transition process,...

The paper surveys the role of financial markets and fiscal institutions in the transformation process going on in Eastern and Central Europe. It highlights (a) the need to create some sort of “social ecological balance” necessary for the working of a modern market economy; (b) the need to...

The paper discusses the interrelationships between payments system reform and monetary policy implementation in selected countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The reforms in the payments system are viewed as closely interrelated with the development of money and foreign exchange markets and...

This paper deals with the early stages of transformation of centrally-planned economies (CPEs) into market economies during which expectations play a key role. It focuses on the transitional phase during which the economy is not any more a CPE but has not yet become a market economy. During this...

The paper aims at assessing the capital needs of Eastern Europe in catching up to EC standards of living using the framework of a CES (constant elasticity of substitution) production function model. This function, parameterized on the EC, is assumed to apply with certain inefficiency factors in...

As the countries of Eastern and Central Europe transform their economies from centrally–planned to market–oriented, the question of the role that the governments should play in mobilizing savings to ensure a high growth rate must be addressed. This paper argues that the issue of a good...

A simple model is developed to understand inflationary pressures and stabilization in nonmarket economies. In light of the model, the paper reviews the inflation and stabilization experiences of several transition economies in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. These experiences are...

The central challenges facing the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia as they work to catch up to advanced European Union (EU) income levels are discussed in this new book. Focusing on the region’s growth performance, and outlining two growth...