This paper explores the contemporary debate among economists on the means to move the economy toward high employment without inflation-beyond the traditional instruments of monetary and fiscal policy. The authors pay particular attention to the Market Anti-Inflation Plan (MAP), submitted by...

In January 1995, a Socialist government came to power in Bulgaria and initiated a mass privatization programme. In the first wave of this programme, which was completed in June 1997, about one-fourth of Bulgaria's state-owned enterprises were partially privatized through the programme. Patterned...

The mass privatization program in Bulgaria was implemented in 1996-97. Following programs in countries like the Czech Republic, more sophisticated regulatory bodies were put into place to prevent the kind of abuses observed elsewhere. This study finds that Bulgaria avoided some of the extreme...

How were contracts among firms enforced in the early phase of a transition economy when firms lacked experience with commercial contracts or legal procedures? What were their views of their new business environment? We interviewed a sample of Bulgarian firms, including private, state-owned and...

How can the former socialist countries' transition to a market economy be made less painful and more effective? We propose the use of incentive policies to stabilize prices and output. This would reduce former planned economies' tendency for output to fall and prices to rise as firms and workers...

Countries have many different ways of organizing higher education. Because of the high costs of higher education, reform efforts, of which the Bologna Process in Europe is an example, are underway in many places. Even where explicit governmental reform processes are less important, economic...