The paper investigates the role of social cohesion in economic development. We capture 'social cohesion' as society's willingness to accept lower wages to increase employment, and as its willingness to offer benefit payments to the unemployed. The lower the minimum wage rate and the higher the...

This paper analyzes how governments in transition economies, interested in their budgetary situation privatize large enterprises. While informal discussions favour voucher privatization my formal model of privatization suggests that voucher privatization may be hard to implement: In contrast to...

The paper provides a framework for understanding why in Romania, like in any other Central and Eastern European country, before starting the process of enterprise restructuring, it is necessary to reform the financial sector. It also provides statistical evidence for understanding why the reform...

This paper gives empirical evidence for the superior performance of foreign direct investment in Romania in the presence of highly labor-intensive production and large market shares. Performance is measured in terms of investment volume and net profits. Partial state-ownership in joint ventures...

This paper is intended to clarify the contribution of macroeconomic stabilization and structural adjustment to the transformation from plan to market in Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere. Four main points emerge. First, increased price stability improves the utilization of capital and...