This paper summarizes the role of entrepreneurship in the East German transformation process that followed the breakdown of the socialist regime and subsequent unification with West Germany. The main aim of this exercise is to derive conclusions and recommendations for a potential unification of...

The transition of Central and Eastern European post-communist countries followed different sets of reforms with different degrees of success which generated a monolithic debate attitude for decades. From shock-therapy and intermediary to gradualist approaches, I stress the superiority of...

Why did the socialist system that dominated Eastern European countries for much of the 20th century collapse around 1990? Drawing on the newly released wiiw COMECON Dataset and reports that the wiiw was publishing at that time, we explore whether the collapse was due to unfixable systemic flaws...

In the past 20 years, the Slovenia has been praised as the richest former socialist country, having accomplished the advancement from borrower into donor status at the World Bank and having entered the European Monetary Union as the first country from former socialist block. In the due course of...

While many observers thought it was premature for Czech Prime Minister Klaus to suggest in 1995 the transition was over except for fine-tuning , as we approach the 20th year after the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989,-and the 18th after the dissolution of the Soviet Union at Byelovezha-...

We present new investment data and revised growth accounts for three socialist economies between 1950 and 1989. Government statistics reported distorted measures for both the rate and trajectory of productivity growth in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. Researchers have benefited from...

The paper analyzes the institutional architecture and the effects of product market competition in 11 countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The aim of the research was to find out how similar or dissimilar are the CEE countries in the area of product market competition compared with the...

The paper examines the evolution of income per capita for a sample of high-income transition countries in the period 1991-2007. The analysis focuses on the dynamics of income per capita convergence throughout the period. We review patterns of income dispersion in Central Europe in a historical...

The post-communist transition in the former Soviet Union (FSU) cannot be considered entirely successful, especially in the political and institutional spheres. Nevertheless, in the economic sphere, the transition process succeeded in rebuilding the foundations of market economies based on...

Decades of investment decisions by central planners left communist societies with structures of production ill-prepared for competitive markets. Their vulnerability to liberalization, however, varied across space. Similar to the effects identified in the "China shock" literature, we hypothesize...