Countries in the Western Balkans – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia – all aspire to membership of the European Union, but they face a major convergence challenge in terms of living standards. The main reason behind this prosperity gap lies in the...

Real exchange rates in the transition region have been relatively volatile over the past two decades, with major variation across countries and over time. In most countries, there was a shift between the pre-global crisis period, when the region saw significant real appreciation of currencies,...

How does economic hardship affect social preferences? Do people feel more solidarity with one another, as often happens after natural disasters? Or does it reduce pro-sociality by making social divisions more salient? We address these questions by analysing the social effects of economic...

Using newly available data, we re-evaluate the impact of transition from plan to market on objective and subjective well-being. We find clear evidence of the high social cost of early transition reforms: cohorts born around the start of transition are shorter than their older or younger peers....

Using the responses in the latest round of the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) of approximately 1,800 business owners and senior managers in the Western Balkans, this paper examines the linkages between firm performance and perceived obstacles to doing business. We...