Over the past two decades decentralisation of government has been widely promoted by international development organisations. In former socialist economies, where governance had been extremely centralised, decentralisation seemed a way to build economic efficiency and improve public sector...

The neoliberal Washington Consensus dominated global policy making over the 1980s. Fundamental to this consensus were three theoretical and ideological tenets: that privatization and markets are a natural order and that this order is best achieved if the state economic role is limited. I argue...

In this paper, I reexamine the finding that the collectivization of agriculture in Eastern Europe resulted in its feminization. Using Bulgarian data, I find that, despite an increase in women's formal labor force participation, women remained concentrated in the least-mechanized, low-wage jobs....

The inattention to environmental problems in East European agriculture reflects assumptions that the problems result from central planning. We argue that the focus on economic systems undermines policy support for environmental sustainability in transforming economies. We examine the link...

<title>Abstract</title> This study examines women's declining use of maternal healthcare services in post-socialist Tajikistan. Using data from the 2003 and 2007 Tajikistan Living Standards Surveys (TLSS), the findings support previous evidence that a woman's use of prenatal and delivery care depends on her...

Post-socialist restoration of property rights brought expectations that small commercial farming would expand, raising smallholder incomes. However, commercial farming remains limited among smallholders in many places. This paper uses interviews with Bulgarian smallholders to analyze the...

The 1990s saw widespread decentralization of government in the former socialist countries of East-Central Europe and Eurasia. The reforms shared a goal of improving government performance by increasing accountability, bringing decisions more in line with the preferences of populations, and...

Central Asia has low labor force participation rates for women, despite high levels of poverty in the non-oil producing countries. Female labor force participation is related to competing uses for women’s time, especially in a context of poor infrastructure and limited availability of...