van Brabant Political Economy of Transition

Opportunities and Limits of Transformation
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-1-134-74014-7
Verlag: CRC Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 576 Seiten

Reihe: Routledge Studies of Societies in Transition

This book addresses the policy questions surrounding the challenge of transforming eastern European economies from their planned, administrative past to vibrant market-based entities.

Jozef van Brabant considers in turn, the wider set of challenges facing these economies - stabilization, privatization, liberalization, institution building, and developing and maintaining the sociopolitical consensus - before examining the evolving role of the state.

Using concrete examples from the eastern European countries throughout, including the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, this work systematically examines, in a society-wide context, the initial conditions of transformation, the policy tasks ahead and the manner in which policies have been pursued.

Autoren/Hrsg.

van Brabant, Jozef M.

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface Acronyms List of Tables Introduction - The essence of the transition and economic transformation; Principal purposes of this monograph; Ideology and economic analysis; Terminological conventions; Measurement problems during the transition; A road map PART I: History, starting conditions and transformation tasks 1. Historical backdrop; i. History and ideology; ii. The ideology of communism and core precepts of economic development; iii. The communist strategy of industrial development; iv. The orthodox economic model; v. Economic policies of state socialism; vi. The institutional infrastructure of the state-socialist economy; Conclusions 2. Reform tinkering and the starting conditions of transition; i. The treadmill of administrative and organizational reforms; ii. Policy dilemmas and macroeconomic imbalances in the 1980s; iii. The multifaceted origin of state socialism's collapse; iv. On starting conditions of economic transformation; Conclusions 3. The market economy and the transformation agenda; i. Shock therapy versus gradualism - a pointless debate?; ii. The market as social institution; iii. A taxonomic framework; iv. Intermediation, markets and transformation; v. Coordinational failures; vi. Comprehensiveness, speed and sequencing; vii. Critical instances of uncertainty; viii. Knowledge and information in formulating transformation policies; ix. Success and failure with transformation policies; Conclusions PART II: Components of the transformation agenda 4. Stabilization as an early policy task; i. The need for stabilization and macroeconomic prudence; ii. The initial approach chosen in transition economies; iii. Money as an instrument and weapon; iv. Main features of a current board; v. Stabilization programs; vi. Monetary policy and instruments during transformation; vii. Fiscal policy and instruments during transformation; Conclusions 5. Internal and external liberalization; i. Coordination in a market environment; ii. Prices of goods and services; iii. Fostering competition; iv. Abolition of the MFT and its implications; v. Instruments of trade policy; vi. Managing the exchange rate; vii. Outcomes of privatization; viii. The remaining problems with privatization; Conclusions 7. The role of institutions in a market economy; i. On the institutions of a functioning market economy; ii. Property rights; iii. The legal foundations of the market; iv. Commercial banking; v. Capital, credit and risk markets; vi. Labor market; vii. Information, the market and the state; viii. Governance; Conclusions 8. Transformation and the sociopolitical consensus; i. Shrinking social security - expectations and realities; ii. Reaching and sustaining the consensus; iii. Governing the transition; iv. Overfull employment as a legacy for transition; v. Salient features of labor markets in transformation; vi. Social services and rearranging property rights; vii. Pension reform; viii. Budgetary policies, social security and human capital; ix. Corruption, crime and personal insecurity; Conclusions 9. The evolving role of the state during transformation; i. The broad role of the state in transition; ii. The state as market organizer; iii. Economic theory and the state; iv. The state as producer and the future of SOEs; v. The desirable role of the state during the transition; viii. Improving governance capabilities; Conclusions PART III: Toward sustainable growth and global integration 10. Transformation and integration into the world economy; i. Integrating into the global economy - its meanings; ii. Multilateral institutional integration; iii. Universalism and systematic differences; iv. The desirability of joining the IEOs; v. The TNCs, modernization and the transformation; vi. The transition economics and the EU; Conclusions 11. Transformation and international assistance; 1. Transition and international assistance; ii. The case for assisting the transition economies; iii. Institutional arrangements for assistance delive