We provide the first comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of government-led reorganization programs for financially distressed firms in transition economies. The study is based on empirical evidence on the programs in Albania, Arinenia, Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia, Romania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz...

This paper examines the importance of agglomeration economies and institutions vis-à-vis initial conditions and factor endowments in explaining the locational choice of foreign investors. Using a unique panel data set for 25 transition economies between 1990 and 1998, we find that the main...

This article examines the political conditions shaping the creation of new institutional capabilities. It analyzes bank sector reforms in the 1990s in three leading postcommunist democracies – Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic. It shows how different political approaches to economic...

The present fiscal difficulties of many countries amplify the call for structural reforms. To provide stylized facts on how reforms worked in the past, we quantitatively review 60 studies estimating the relation between reforms and growth. These studies examine structural reforms carried out in...

In a recent model Markusen and Venables (1999) describe the conditions under which foreign direct investments (FDI) can act as a catalyst for local industrial development. We apply this framework to the case of Poland, allowing for the entry of multinationals in both intermediates and...

We compare the convergence with German monetary policy of the Balkan and Mediterranean country candidates for EU membership with that of countries that have recently joined the EU. Significant linkages exist between German base money stock and that of recent members of the EU; the same holds...

Wide differences between effective or realised average tax rates and tax yields that would result if statutory tax rates were strictly applied indicate tax compliance and collection problems. Due to the greater politicisation of tax systems in transition economies (TEs), we would expect the...

Paper presents a first-hand examination of the Balassa-Samuelson effect in Slovenia. Different measures of real exchange rate are presented in order to provide arguments for the Balassa-Samuelson effect estimation using external real exchange rate measure. It is argued that on average one...

The increase in wage inequality in Russia during its transition process has far exceeded the increase in wage dispersion observed in other European countries undergoing transition. Russia also has an extremely large incidence of wage arrears. We analyse to what extent wage arrears affect the...

This paper studies the impact of daily official foreign exchange interventions on the exchange rates of two EU candidate countries, namely Croatia and Turkey for the periods from 1996 to 2004 and from 2001 to 2004, respectively. Using the event study methodology and a variety of GARCH models...