This paper addresses the adequacy of post-reform growth in Latin America in the 1990s on the basis of international comparison and other relevant standards. It analytically explores and empirically tests a number of hypotheses to explain the perceived dissatisfaction with growth performance.

Pre-reform similarities between the ex-German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia serve as a basis for comparing two different approaches to marketizing centrally planned economies. The GDR freed trade in goods and fixed the exchange rate first, then liberalized domestic price setting, and...