Banks played a central and, at times, controversial, role in the post-1989 transformation of the Czech economy. This article is trying to assess that role by setting it in a historical and comparative context. Economic historians have specified two broad models of banking behaviour, although the...

Much of the literature on changes in Czech enterprises has been developed around a neo-classical framework with the emphasis on the effects of hard budget constraints and privatization. That, however, provides a limited view of the choices available to enterprises and of the constraints that...