The early (drastic) output fall has been the major bone of contention among theorists in the early years of transition. This author looks at the issue from the vantage point of the communist economic legacy, i.e. so-called 'pure socialist production', unneeded under a less wasteful economic...

Certainly types of laws and institutions shape economic behavior in market economies. In Eastern Europe, these general rules and market institutions are often nonexistent and a major problem is to create market economies while simultaneously building the supporting institutions. The author...

Why do economic reforms fail in Soviet-type systems despite the obvious interest of ruling groups in improving the performance of their ailing economies? The author applies a property-rights-based analysis stressing modes of rent-maximization by ruling groups as a crucial explanatory variable....

This article looks at the BRIC countries with the understanding that countries not only grow, but also undergo structural change. Industrialisation first and the shift from industry to human capital intensive-services economy later. Moreover, it is stressed that the latter transformation...

First published in 1987, this is an analysis of the contemporary breakdown of political and economic systems within the Eastern European communist countries. Rather than passively following the developments of this crisis, the author seeks instead to identify the reasons for failure and to...

First published in 1997, this collection of articles and essays analyses the political economy of reform and change in Eastern Europe during the years of Gorbachev's perestroika and the years immediately following the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Written by...

The transformation of state-owned enterprises into privately owned ones is commonly referred to as 'privatization'. Just as important as this process, though sometimes not given the attention it deserves and requires, is the establishment and expansion of new private firms.This book analyzes new...