A Comparative Overview of Transition
This project undertook a broad overview of the postsocialist transition in the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, focusing on the institutional, sectoral, and microeconomic adjustments at the core of the transition process. It also touched on the experience in East Asia, especially in China and Vietnam. As countries pursued very different approaches to reform, there was an increasing need for comparative analysis of country experience, in particular to assess the progress of the more advanced reformers and to extract lessons of experience (both positive and negative) for other countries, some of which were lagging in their reforms and in stabilization. In some areas, such as energy, the issues require a multicountry perspective because adjustment involves interdependence among countries.
Many questions were addressed, including, What was the legacy of the previous system? What have been the main adjustment issues? What reform strategies have been followed in the leading countries, and how have they affected the behavior and performance of firms? What major policy lessons have emerged from experience to date? How do sectoral or market reforms interact with one another and with macroeconomic performance? Where are the major unknowns? Where are there still important areas of policy disagreement?
The studies completed under this project include an overview of the patterns of transition; a study on the role of initial conditions; and papers on agriculture, finance, energy, the role of markets, international trade and finance, the transition toward private ownership, changing social benefits in Russian enterprises, and the impact of transition on households. These studies served as background for the World Bank's World Development Report 1996: From Plan to Market (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
Responsibility: Policy Research Department, Public Economics Division--Martha de Melo (mdemelo@worldbank.org), and Macroeconomics and Growth Division--Cevdet Denizer; Africa Technical Families, Regional Economics and Social Policy Division--Alan Gelb; International Finance Corporation--Stoyan Tenef; and Europe and Central Asia, Country Department III, Agriculture, Industry, and Finance Division--Karen Brooks, and Country Department II, Agriculture and Regional Development Operations Division--John Nash.
Completion date: December 1996.
Reports:
Brooks, Karen, and John Nash. Forthcoming. "Agriculture in Transitional Economies." In Bruce L. Gardner and Gordon C. Rausser, eds., Handbook of Agricultural Economics. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Caprio, Gerard. 1995. "The Role of Financial Intermediaries in Transitional Economies." Carnegie-Rochester Conference on Public Policy 42:257302.
Commander, Simon, and Mark Schankerman. 1996. "Enterprise Restructuring and the Efficient Provision of Social Benefits." In D. Lippoldt, ed., The Changing Social Benefits in Russian Enterprises. Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. (Also published in Russian.)
_____. Forthcoming. "Enterprise Restructuring and Social Benefits." In Economics of Transition, vol. 1. London: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
de Melo, Martha. 1996. "From Plan to Market: Paradoxes of Transition." Banka (Zagreb, Croatia).
de Melo, Martha, Cevdet Denizer, and Alan Gelb. 1996. "Patterns of Transition from Plan to Market." World Bank Economic Review 10(3).
_____. Forthcoming. "From Plan to Market: Patterns of Transition." In Mario Blejer and Marko Skreb, eds., Macroeconomic Stabilization and Transition Economies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
de Melo, Martha, Cevdet Denizer, Alan Gelb, and Stoyan Tenev. "Explaining Transition: The Role of Initial Conditions." World Bank, Policy Research Department, Washington, DC.
de Melo, Martha, and Alan Gelb. 1996. "A Comparative Analysis of 28 Transition Economies in Europe and Asia." Post-Soviet Geography and Economics 37(5).
_____. Forthcoming. "Transition to Date: A Comparative Overview." In Salvatore Zecchini, ed., Lessons from the Economic Transition. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers. (Also to be published in Hungarian.)
Gray, Cheryl. 1996. "In Search of Owners: Privatization and Corporate Governance in Transition Economies." World Bank Research Observer 11(2):17997.
Gray, Dale. 1995. Reforming the Energy Sector in Transition Economies: Selected Experience and Lessons. World Bank Discussion Paper 296. Washington, DC.
Ickes, Barry, and Randi Ryterman. "The Organization of Markets and Its Role in Macroeconomic Stabilization during Transition." World Bank, Policy Research Department, Washington, DC.
Kaminski, Bartlomiej. 1996. "Factors Affecting Trade Reorientation of the Newly Independent States." In Bartlomiej Kaminski, ed., Economic Transition in Russia and the New States of Eurasia. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.
Kaminski, Bartlomiej, and Zhen Kun Wang. Forthcoming. "External Finance, Policy Conditionalities, and Transition from Central Planning." In K. Dawisha, ed., The International Dimension of Post-Communist Transitions in Russia and the New States of Eurasia. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.
Kaminski, Bartlomiej, Zhen Kun Wang, and L. Alan Winters. 1995. "Ze Wschodu na Zachhod: Reorientacja Handlu Zagranicznego" (From East to West: Reorientation of Foreign Trade). Nowa Europa (Warsaw; December).
_____. 1996. "Export Performance in Transition Economies." Economic Policy: A European Forum (London; October).
_____. 1996. Foreign Trade in the Transition: The International Environment and Domestic Policy. Studies of Economies in Transformation 20. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Milanovic, Branko. 1996. "Poverty and Inequality in Transition Economies: What Has Actually Happened." In Bartlomiej Kaminski, ed., Economic Transition in Russia and the New States of Eurasia. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.
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