We examine the effect of joining the European Union on individual life satisfaction in Bulgaria and Romania in the context of the 2007 EU enlargement. Although EU membership is among the most important events in Bulgaria and Romania's modern histories, there is no evidence on how it affected the...

This paper quantifies the impact of incentives related to potential membership on institutional change as measured by the World Bank Governance Indicators (WBGI). Based on a panel of 25 transition countries for the period from 1996 to 2008 we show that pre-accession incentives provided by EU and...

This research compares the links between the economic growth and the development of banking credit for the private sector in three transition economies. The empirical results confirm the choice of a case-by-case analytical and time series econometrical approach. Each country has its own...

This paper investigates the presence of the relationship between private and government consumption through panel data techniques. Using a panel from different transitional countries, from 1990 to 2003, it applies the panel cointegration and causality methodologies. The study finds statistical...

The paper analyzes the initial output decline in transition economies by estimating a cross-section model stressing two major factors - conflicts and the legacies of the Soviet period. We link the Soviet legacies in place at the outset of the transition to the subsequent path for the development...

Although various factors point to a more arduous and longer transition in Russia than in Eastern Europe, the broad policy approach should be similar.A necessary condition for effective macroeconomic stabilization is the imposition of hard budget constraints on enterprises. Financial assistance...

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,...

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...

This paper estimates equilibrium dollar wages for 15 transition economies. Equilibrium dollar wages are interpreted as full employment wages consistent with a country`s physical and human capital endowment, and estimated by regressing actual dollar wages on productivity and human capital proxies...