State, Labor, and the Transition to a Market Economy

State, Labor, and the Transition to a Market Economy PDF Author: Agnieszka Paczyńska
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 027106269X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book

Book Description
In response to mounting debt crises and macroeconomic instability in the 1980s, many countries in the developing world adopted neoliberal policies promoting the unfettered play of market forces and deregulation of the economy and attempted large-scale structural adjustment, including the privatization of public-sector industries. How much influence did various societal groups have on this transition to a market economy, and what explains the variances in interest-group influence across countries? In this book, Agnieszka Paczyńska explores these questions by studying the role of organized labor in the transition process in four countries in different regions—the Czech Republic and Poland in eastern Europe, Egypt in the Middle East, and Mexico in Latin America. In Egypt and Poland, she shows, labor had substantial influence on the process, whereas in the Czech Republic and Mexico it did not. Her explanation highlights the complex relationship between institutional structures and the “critical junctures” provided by economic crises, revealing that the ability of groups like organized labor to wield influence on reform efforts depends to a great extent on not only their current resources (such as financial autonomy and legal prerogatives) but also the historical legacies of their past ties to the state. This new edition features an epilogue that analyzes the role of organized labor uprisings in 2011, the protests in Egypt, the overthrow of Mubarak, and the post-Mubarak regime.

State, Labor, and the Transition to a Market Economy

State, Labor, and the Transition to a Market Economy PDF Author: Agnieszka Paczyńska
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 027106269X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book

Book Description
In response to mounting debt crises and macroeconomic instability in the 1980s, many countries in the developing world adopted neoliberal policies promoting the unfettered play of market forces and deregulation of the economy and attempted large-scale structural adjustment, including the privatization of public-sector industries. How much influence did various societal groups have on this transition to a market economy, and what explains the variances in interest-group influence across countries? In this book, Agnieszka Paczyńska explores these questions by studying the role of organized labor in the transition process in four countries in different regions—the Czech Republic and Poland in eastern Europe, Egypt in the Middle East, and Mexico in Latin America. In Egypt and Poland, she shows, labor had substantial influence on the process, whereas in the Czech Republic and Mexico it did not. Her explanation highlights the complex relationship between institutional structures and the “critical junctures” provided by economic crises, revealing that the ability of groups like organized labor to wield influence on reform efforts depends to a great extent on not only their current resources (such as financial autonomy and legal prerogatives) but also the historical legacies of their past ties to the state. This new edition features an epilogue that analyzes the role of organized labor uprisings in 2011, the protests in Egypt, the overthrow of Mubarak, and the post-Mubarak regime.

Transition to the Market Economy

Transition to the Market Economy PDF Author: P. G. Hare
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780415149259
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book

Book Description


The Transition to the Market Economy

The Transition to the Market Economy PDF Author: Paul G. Hare
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415124348
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 506

Get Book

Book Description
This collection of articles examines the development of one of the most significant economic transformations ever undertaken covering a wide range of countries and economic sectors

Different Strategies of Transition to a Market Economy

Different Strategies of Transition to a Market Economy PDF Author: Marek D?browski
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Capitalism
Languages : en
Pages : 56

Get Book

Book Description


Transition Economies

Transition Economies PDF Author: Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317567943
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Get Book

Book Description
This interdisciplinary study offers a comprehensive analysis of the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Providing full historical context and drawing on a wide range of literature, this book explores the continuous economic and social transformation of the post-socialist world. While the future is yet to be determined, understanding the present phase of transformation is critical. The book’s core exploration evolves along three pivots of competitive economic structure, institutional change, and social welfare. The main elements include analysis of the emergence of the socialist economic model; its adaptations through the twentieth century; discussion of the 1990s market transition reforms; post-2008 crisis development; and the social and economic diversity in the region today. With an appreciation for country specifics, the book also considers the urgent problems of social policy, poverty, income inequality, and labor migration. Transition Economies will aid students, researchers and policy makers working on the problems of comparative economics, economic development, economic history, economic systems transition, international political economy, as well as specialists in post-Soviet and Central and Eastern European regional studies.

Different Strategies of Transition to a Market Economy

Different Strategies of Transition to a Market Economy PDF Author: Marek Dabrowski
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book

Book Description
March 1996 The government's ability to act fast and with determination is more important to radical economic reform than technical perfection in designing new policy instruments. Political consent to reform measures lasts a short time, so it should be used in full. If the window of opportunity is ignored, the next one may be a long time coming. In 1989, the former communist countries embarked on a transition from centrally planned command economies to market economies (and from repressive dictatorships to Western-style democracies). In addressing the question, What is the optimal strategy for this transformation? Dabrowski revisits the controversy about how quickly and radically the new market rules and their components should be adopted in the former communist countries and discusses the economic and political problems associated with different strategies. Among his conclusions: * Generally, the faster and more comprehensive the economic reform, the more chance there is to minimize its economic, social, and political costs, and to avoid chronic macroeconomic mismanagement. A more radical and disciplined path of transition is all the more important when initial conditions are less favorable and negative external shocks are greater. Only countries such as Hungary -- which had made some progress in market-oriented reform before communism's collapse and which experienced less macroeconomic disequilibrium -- could go more slowly. * Political liberalization and democratization helps the economic transition succeed mainly because it helps weaken the political positions of the traditional communist oligarchy (nomenclatura), which is interested mainly in rent-seeking. * Unless stabilization and liberalization are achieved quickly, microeconomic restructuring cannot be expected to progress quickly, even if privatization does (as it has in Russia). Other aspects of the transition may take more time. For privatization to succeed, for example, a legal base and organizational infrastructure must be created. But even with privatization, a rapid transition is less risky for restructuring and for complex institutional reform than a slow transition. * There is no way to avoid a relatively large decline in output, especially of industrial production in the state sector. * Granting concessions to, and bargaining with, various pressure groups does not produce the expected political results or increase social acceptance of reform. * Governments should not be afraid of aiming too high in embarking on a stabilization program or any other component of transformation. Most post-communist governments do the opposite: dilute the program so much it becomes ineffective. This paper -- a product of the Transition Economics Division, Policy Research Department -- is part of a larger effort in the department to look at progress on macroeconomic reforms in former communist countries as they move to a market economy.

Economies in Transition

Economies in Transition PDF Author: Wing Thye Woo
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262731201
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 438

Get Book

Book Description
In 1994, the Asia Foundation's Center for Asian Pacific Affairs began a two-year project to compare the transitions of selected East European and Asian economies from centrally-planned communist systems to market economies. The goal was to shed light on the transition process through an understanding of the underlying economic and institutional dynamics. This volume is the culmination of that project.The volume is divided into three parts. In the first part, an overview, the editors review the authors' findings and highlight major themes. The second part looks closely at the transition process in seven Asian and East European economies: China, Vietnam, Mongolia, Russia, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The third part contains six comparative studies that explore key elements of the transition process. The papers incorporate feedback obtained from meetings with cabinet members and high government officials, conferences, and seminars in Prague, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Beijing, Ulan Bator, and Washington, D.C. Contributors Leszek Balcerowicz, Barbara Blaszczyk, Peter Boone, Yuan Zheng Cao, Bruce Comer, Marek Dabrowski, Georges de Menil, Daniel C. Esty, Gang Fan, Boris Federov, Roman Frydman, Carol Graham, Stephen Parker, Andrzej Rapaczynski, James Riedel, Jeffrey D. Sachs, Baavaa Tarvaa, Vinod Thomas, Gavin Tritt, Adiya Tsend, Enkhbold Tsendjav, Joel Turkewitz, Narantsetseg Unenburen, Yan Wang, Wing Thye Woo

Poland's Jump to the Market Economy

Poland's Jump to the Market Economy PDF Author: Jeffrey Sachs
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262691741
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 146

Get Book

Book Description
In Poland's jump to the Market Economy, Jeffrey Sachs provides an insider's analysis of the political events and economic strategy behind the country's swift transition to capitalism and democracy. The greatest challenges to economic reform, Sachs points out, have been primarily political in nature, rather than social or even economic.Sachs reviews Poland's striking progress since the start of the economic reforms three years ago, which he helped to design. He discusses the gains - more than half of employment and GDP is now in the private sector, exports to Western Europe have more than doubled, and economic growth and confidence are returning - as well as the serious problems that remain - high unemployment, a chronic fiscal deficit, the slow pace of privatization of large industrial enterprises, and the fragility of multiparty coalition governments.Sachs points out that leadership is crucial to economic reform in a newly democratic setting, as is the West's timely economic assistance. In Poland's case, the Zloty Stabilization Fund and the two-stage debt cancellation have been essential to keeping the reform program on track.Poland's example has had a powerful impact on reforms throughout the region, including the former Soviet Union, and has done much to dispel the fear that the citizens themselves, allegedly made lazy by decades of socialism, would reject the competitive rigors of a market economy. Overall, Sachs remains firmly convinced of the potential for successful economic reforms. in Poland and the rest of the region.Jeffrey Sachs is Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade at Harvard University, and has been an economic advisor to more than a dozen countries around the world, including Bolivia, Mongolia, Poland, and Russia.

Privatization in the Transition to a Market Economy

Privatization in the Transition to a Market Economy PDF Author: John S. Earle
Publisher: Burns & Oates
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Get Book

Book Description
Privatization policies are the centrepiece of the historically unique transformation of the centrally planned, into market economies. Yet the peculiarities of the privatization process in Eastern Europe are little understood in the West because of differences in historical, socio-political and economic contexts relative to Western experience. Most research on privatization in the West is rather theoretical and thus pays insufficient attention to these contexts, perhaps because their importance is not widely appreciated and because there has been little information about them available. Moreover, the significant differences among East European countries in contexts and in policies are not well-understood even within the region, again because of a lack of information.

Handbook of the Economics and Political Economy of Transition

Handbook of the Economics and Political Economy of Transition PDF Author: Paul Hare
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135080879
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 528

Get Book

Book Description
Transition from central planning to a market economy, involving large-scale institutional change and reforms at all levels, is often described as the greatest social science experiment in modern times. As more than two decades have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is now an excellent time to take stock of how the transition process has turned out for the economies that have moved on from socialism and the command economy. This new handbook assembles a team of leading experts, many of whom were closely involved in the transition process as policymakers and policy advisors, to explore the major themes that have characterized the transition process. After identifying the nature of initial conditions and the strengths and weaknesses of institutions, the varying paths and reforms countries have taken are fully analyzed – from the shock therapy, privatization or gradualism of the early years to the burning issues of the present including global integration and sustainable growth. Topics covered include the socialist system pre-transition, economic reforms, institutions, the political economy of transition, performance and growth, enterprise restructuring, and people and transition. The country coverage is also extensive, from the former socialist countries of the USSR and the satellite states of Central and Eastern Europe to the Asian countries of China, Vietnam and others. The rise of China as a key actor in the drama is chronicled, along with the emergence of a new, more confident, oil-rich Russia. The comparative prosperity of the Central European countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic is contrasted with the mixed fortunes of the former USSR, where some countries are stagnating while others boom. This Handbook of the Economics and Political Economy of Transition is the definitive guide to this new order of things in the former Communist world.