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.
Table of Contents
1. The great unknowns – post-socialist economies and societies in motion
2. Transition vs. transformation: what is clear and not so clear about transition economics
3. The economic and social context at the turn of the twentieth century: from the Russian Empire to the Soviet Union
4. The war economy and the post World War II reconstruction in the USSR
5. From war to wall to common market: the dialectics of the Eastern European socialist economy
6. The socialist economic model, market socialism, stagnation, perestroika, and the end of plan
7. Free market reform: liberalization, privatization, shock therapy, and policy misfortunes
8. Poverty, income inequality, labor migration, and diaspora potential
9. Contours of the new era post-transition economy: they are all different
10. Facing the present by knowing the past
