Progress in Transition

This project complements a related one (A Comparative Overview of Transition), providing a more focused analysis of issues relating to the transition process or countries in transition. The project consists of several studies. A study of monetary policy issues during transition reported on the progress of transition economies in switching to indirect monetary policy instruments and analyzed how such change has affected monetary policy effectiveness, especially with regard to inflation. Another study reviewed the experience of a group of transition economies and the transition strategies they adopted, showing how the strategies worked in practice. A review of adjustment patterns in Azerbaijan and Central Asia discussed the achievements and failures of countries in that part of the world and showed that these countries were generally slower in implementing reforms than were Eastern European countries. Another study investigated the economic growth prospects for 26 transition economies and estimated each country's steady-state growth rate.

Most of the studies constructed a conceptual framework for analyzing the issues they addressed, then tested the hypotheses implied by these frameworks using econometric methods. The main data sources were national publications of transition economies, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.

Some of the papers produced by the project were background papers for the World Bank's World Development Report 1996: From Plan to Market (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). Papers have also influenced Bank lending programs in Europe and Central Asia, mainly adjustment operations.

Responsibility: Policy Research Department, Macroeconomics and Growth Division--Cevdet Denizer (cdenizer@worldbank.org), and Public Economics Division--Martha de Melo. With Marek Dabrowski, Center for Social and Economic Research, Poland.

Completion date: July 1997.

Reports:

Dabrowski, Marek. 1996. "Different Strategies of Transition to a Market Economy: How Do They Work in Practice?" Policy Research Working Paper 1579. World Bank, Policy Research Department, Washington, DC.

de Melo, Martha. 1996. "Monetary Developments during Transition." Paper presented at the Second Dubrovnik Conference, Croatia, June.

de Melo, Martha, and Cevdet Denizer. 1997. "Monetary Policy during Transition: An Overview." Policy Research Working Paper 1706. World Bank, Policy Research Department, Washington, DC.

Denizer, Cevdet. 1995. "Reforms and Comparative Economic Performance in Azerbaijan and Central Asia." Paper presented at a conference, University of Utah, March.

_____. "Stabilization and Adjustment and Growth Prospects in Transition Economies." Paper presented at a conference on transition economies, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.

Back to Transition Economies contents

Back to 1997 Abstracts of Current Studies Home Page