Small Scale Privatization in Eastern Europe and Russia from a Historical and Comparative Perspective

This Working Paper is a summary of a workshop which was held at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria in 1992. Small scale privatization (SSP) of shops, restaurants and other consumer services has been accomplished in the first stage of the complex process of privatization in Eastern Europe. It was also an experiment for measuring the demand for previously state owned property and for verifying different techniques of privatization. The Russian Federation is now undertaking the first steps in SSP and may learn much from recent experiences of the other East European economies. In order to facilitate such an exchange, a workshop was organized at IIASA to analyze the pattern of SSP in the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, the former East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Russia. The characteristics at each stage of the privatization processes were thoroughly discussed and compared across the nations, beginning with the emergence of the idea of SSP, through legislation and the rise of unexpected tensions during the implementation phase, to the characteristic features of newly privatized retail and service businesses.