On the Role of Sector Size in Determining the Transition Path.

This paper is an attempt to capture the relevance of the relative magnitude of the state and the private sectors in making the transition from central planning more likely to succeed. The basic idea that we introduce is that the growth of the new private sector, in an environment characterized by a severe form of credit constraint, depends on its relative magnitude in the economy. We also propose an extension of the model which examines the issue of full privatization versus restructuring in a credit-constrained environment. In this paper we give brief details of the life of Harold Thayer Davis (1892-1974) and outline his contributions to econometrics in its early years. Copyright 1999 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd and The Victoria University of Manchester