Exit in the Framework of Macro-economic Shocks and Policy Responses during Transition: a Cross-country Comparison

Enterprises in post-communist economies have been subject to a wide range of shocks as the old economic order has been swept away. It has been claimed that among the most important of these shocks have been: elimination of soft budget constraints, foreign trade shocks, and over-devaluation. The paper aims at measuring the size of the shocks affecting the fast reformers of the Visegrad group and some of the slower reforming reference countries (such as Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and Ukraine), and assessong the policy responses of governments.