If official statistics are to be believed, the fall in output in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe has probably been the largest anywhere in peacetime in modern history (failed harvests could cause even larger falls in agricultural societies, and such effects were felt on a...

The arguments for fiscal as well as monetary rules in a monetary union aiming at low inflation, the main weaknesses in the Stability and Growth Pact, and proposals for its reform are reviewed. Our own proposal for reforming the SGP is put forward: a requirement for eurozone Member States to...

This article discusses among others the Pazos-Simonsen Mechanism - short term wage controls as a means of abrogating existing wage contracts, short serm wage controls as a mechanism for co-ordinating expectations and short term wage controls in semi-heterodox stabilization programmes as well as...

The paper first considers why central European countries wish to join EMU soon. The main reasons are the risk of macroeconomic instability they face outside the euro zone if they wish to grow quickly. At the same time, Central Europe is highly integrated as regards trade with EMU, so it is...

The collapse of communism faced Poland and other former Soviet bloc countries with the need for a massive “institutional refit”, as regards both economic and political institutions. This paper describes where some of the key new institutions were derived from (either in the form of...

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...

The difference between common law and French civil law countries fails to have a statistically significant effect on economic growth, whereas the difference between British and French colonies has a strong effect when the two pairs of institutional variables are included separately in...

In this paper we examine four main kinds of reason for Gaidar's team failure in Russia: 1) problems arising from the process of designing the programme; 2) failures of implementation; 3) problems arising from Russia's economic structure; 4) problems arising from Russia's political structure.

In this paper we examine four main kinds of reason for Gaidar's team failure in Russia: 1) problems arising from the process of designing the programme; 2) failures of implementation; 3) problems arising from Russia's economic structure; 4) problems arising from Russia's political structure

The collapse of communism faced Poland and other former Soviet bloc countries with the need for a massive 'institutional refit', as regards both economic and political institutions. This paper describes where some of the key new institutions were derived from (either in the form of transplants...