Primary purpose of this parer is to comment on the experiences so far by the formerly communist countries in transforming their economies with a view to propose lessons for policy-making. Although my familiarity is greatest with the Polish experience, makes use of the empirical evidence, both...

This is the first detailed study of enterprise finances in a country of Central and Eastern Europe during transition. It is based on enterprise data collected monthly by the Polish Central Statistical Office. Its primary purpose is to provide answers to questions about the size of enterprise...

The paper discusses four IMF-supported adjustment programs of Poland, 1990-1995, and two of Russia, 1992-1994, in terms of the underlying theory, policy objectives, assumptions, policies, errors and results. The paper suggests that the roles of the IMF and the World Bank have been helpful but,...

The national statistics and international comparisons based on purchasing power parities suggest that the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in the years 1925-75 and Central and Eastern Europe in the years 1945-80 experienced economic growth comparable to that of many market-based economies of similar...

This paper gives an account of the main aims and principles of the reform measures which came into force in 1999. Its primary objective is to present estimations of the effects of these measures on the composition of the pension system, over the next 50 years, in terms of institutions,...

Euroization is an important part of what appears to be a new general ten- dency in the world economy, one towards fewer but better monies (Dornbusch, 2001). The main arguments in favour of the European Union (EU) countries adopting a common currency fall, I think, into three categories: (a)...

The paper develops and discusses a two-sector general equilibrium growth model of a "transit economy" which is subjected to an external price shock. The assumed behavioural charactertistic of such an economy is the presence of a distributional rigidity rather than the more commonly assumed...

This paper attempts the following two questions, both with reference to the response of the Polish economy to the stabilization and liberalization plan of January 1, 1990: why was the fall in output much larger and the inflation rate much higher than anticipated? Was the contraction of aggregate...

The paper discusses the reasons for the observed variation in the sequencing, speed and content of reform policies, in the 1990s, among 25 post-socialist countries of Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union. It argues that these differences, while considerable in the early 1990s, did not...

This paper considers the impact on sectoral outputs and employments of rapid and large changes in relative prices, such as those which occurred in transition economies during the 1990s. A simple general equilibrium model is developed in which price changes are induced by a tax reform and...