In analyzing the transitional experience of countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the former Soviet Union (FSU), the authors find strong common patterns for countries at similar stages of reform despite differences in initial conditions. To establish rankings, the authors create a...

This paper examines issues involving the design and sequence of economic reform in formerly socialist economies that have made the political decision to move to a private market economy. They also examine the potential role of foreign countries in providing aid, technical assistance, and market...

This paper argues that the labor transfer process outlined by the Lewis model (1954) can give rise to surplus labour - in the sense than the marginal product of labour is less that the wage - in the public part of the modern sector and that this may deprive the modern sector of its dynamism....

The typical financial sector reform package involves policy changes to increase the power of centralized decision making in some areas and to reduce it in others. For regulation and supervision, reforms seek strengthened information systems, stronger and more detailed regulations, and closer...

This wide-ranging paper provides an extensive analysis of "agency problems" endemic to financial systems, particularly in countries where: economic information is limited, market institutions are weak (including those needed to enforce contracts), and governments intervene extensively in...