Privatization in Eastern Europe

Central and Eastern European countries are facing the transition from central to market systems with different strategies and capacities. As the task of societal transformation is without precedent in world history, the massive economic restructuring has revealed the need for distributive justice and general well-being. As the editors and contributors to this volume point out, the monolithic preoccupation with economic restructuring in a market economics framework is implemented at the expense of social protection and security.

With the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, Central and Eastern European states have had to confront fundamental changes in economic, social, and governmental structures. Essays address significant issues dealing with the frameworks of social justice, social justice and equality, policies for families and women, implications for the welfare state, and the impact on health care.

The substantial political changes in Eastern Europe and Russia since 1989 have been accompanied by the attempted transfer, imposition, and imitation of labour relations practices and mechanisms from other market economies, primarily of Western Europe. This book addresses the extent to which these transferred labour-relations institutions are likely to take root. The authors offer a comparative analysis of changing labour relations at national level in a range of countries, and the role of governments, international institutions, trade unions, and other agencies. This is supported by in-depth case studies on the processes of transformation at enterprise level. Drawing on the findings of an international research team, analysis of the change process and recent developments is related to the legacies of the socialist system.

This book provides an important new contribution to the literature about Eastern Europe following the political changes of the early 1990s. Its focus is on housing, which before these changes was dominated in all Eastern European countries by state control and, to a lesser extent, state provision. Here, the contributors aim to describe and analyze the fundamental changes that are now taking place as these housing systems, together with their supporting financial institutions and building industries, are privatized.

This volume provides an up-to-date account of how the process of economic transition in Eastern Europe is unfolding from the point of view of Eastern European economists assessing their native economies. The authors have personally experienced the frustrations of the previous Stalinist system of central planning and public ownership, as well as the difficulties and pitfalls of designing new systems based on markets and private ownership. The book focuses on the three countries of Eastern Europe leading the reform efforts--Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland--and points out similarities and differences in their reform strategies.

Dininio examines the political economy of East German privatization. She shows that the transferred business and labor organizations in the East failed to lobby for assistance, but the government nonetheless responded to economic collapse by subsidizing large firms with grants, loans, loan guarantees, and a host of innovative programs.

Transition in Central and Eastern Europe, as Blanchard points out, has adhered to a U-shaped response in terms of economic output--that is, a sharp decline in output followed by a recovery. Today, most of the countries of Central Europe seem to have enjoyed a steady upswing, while most Eastern European nations still appear to be near the bottom of the U. This book traces the courses, causes, and implications of this pattern, arguing that two basic mechanisms dominate such transition. The first is the reallocation between the state and private sectors, with a contraction of activities in the former and an expansion in the latter. The second is the restructuring of the old state sector, with the opportunity for large improvements in productivity. Against this background, the book's focus shifts to three particular factors: the adjustment of employment and wages in state firms to the initial shock of reduced demand for their goods; the dynamics of restructuring and privatization; and the relationship between reallocation, restructuring, and traffic in the labor market. The final section summarizes the discussion, and in doing so builds a general equilibrium model as a preliminary to the analysis of three sets of issues: the role of unemployment benefits and privatization `ules; the interaction between transition and fiscal policy; and the evolution of the support for reform. The model is then used to address the thorny issue of the ideal speed for economic reform. The latest offering from a distinguished expert on the economics of transition, this is one of the first book-length analyses of the process of moving from a centrally-planned to a market economy.

The promise of a smooth systemic transformation in the Baltic states has been overshadowed by unforeseen obstacles. Speedy disengagement from the past, particularly from long established practices and inherited economic relationships, has proven more trying than originally anticipated. Compelling interview materials from the region's 115 leading government officials, including prime ministers, and academicians, highlight the major points of the text. Scholars in the United States and Europe, government officials, research and business institutes, and business trade associations will find this a thought provoking analysis of the progress and prospects of former Soviet republics and the lessons this provides for other republics of the former USSR.

The process of economic restructuring is especially important and particularly complex in Central Europe, where Poland, Hungary, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Slovenia, and other independent states of former Yugoslavia are struggling to transform themselves from socialist to market economies. Each country faces equally complex challenges, however, in creating a new business climate that will nourish domestic enterprise and attract investments by multinational corporations. These challenges include: (1) privatizing state-owned enterprises that have dominated the economies of socialist countries; (2) developing public policies and programs that support the private sector, especially small- and medium-scale enterprises; (3) decentralizing the state administrative structure to allow regional and local governments to play a more active role in providing public services and supporting private enterprise; and (4) restructuring industry, agriculture, and services in order to diversify and reinvigorate the economic base (including infrastructure) of regions surrounding cities that are still dominated by heavy (and now largely obsolescent) manufacturing industries. This book surveys the situation in Central Europe during the early period of transition in the early 1990s when governments in all four countries were experimenting with privatization and economic reform. The authors assess how privatization and economic reform policies have changed the business climate in this important region of the world. The editor provides an overview of economic reforms in Central European countries, offers a framework by which to compare them, describes the approaches to privatization their governmentsadopted, and identifies the problems and challenges that each country faces in attempting to create a market-oriented economy.

Winiecki here examines the hurdles and problems that face entrepreneurs and private firms in post-communist nations. This book should appreciated by readers with an interest in transition economics.