We investigate the remarkably short unemployment spells in the Czech Republic compared to Slovakia and other Central and East European economies. We estimate hazard functions and find that 40 to 50 percent of the difference in unemployment durations between the two republics is accounted for by...

In this paper we evaluate the part played by the unemployment compensation systems (UCS) in the generally high unemployment rates experienced in the transition and we provide an explanation for the differences in the performances of the Czech and Slovak labor markets. Using data we collected...

While privatization of state-owned enterprises has been one of the most important aspects of the economic transition from a centrally planned to a market system, no transition economy has privatized all its firms simultaneously. This raises the question of whether governments privatize firms...