Private And Financial Sector Development In Transition Economies

This collection examines the design of financial systems for central and eastern European countries engaged in the transition to market-based economies. It highlights the need for better approaches to measuring performance and providing incentives in banking and for financial mechanisms to encourage private-sector growth. Written by leading European and North American scholars, the essays apply modern finance theory and empirical data to the development of new financial sectors.

A transition economy is an economy which is changing from a planned economy to a free market. Transition economies undergo economic liberalisation (letting market forces set prices and lowering trade barriers), macroeconomic stabilisation where immediate high inflation is brought under control, and restructuring and privatisation in order to create a financial sector and move from public to private ownership of resources. These changes often may lead to increased inequality of incomes and wealth, dramatic inflation and a fall of GDP. Transition process is usually characterised by the changing and creating of institutions, particularly private enterprises; changes in the role of the state, thereby, the creation of fundamentally different governmental institutions and the promotion of private-owned enterprises, markets and independent financial institutions. This new book presents the latest research from around the world in this field.

The Latin American Development Forum promotes debate and disseminates knowledge and analysis on economic and social development issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Institutional Sponsors of this series are the World Bank, United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). The transition economies of the Europe and Central Asia Region faced unprecedented political, economic, and social change after me break-up of the Soviet Union. With assistance from the World Bank and other donors, many countries quickly accomplished a number of reforms, but progress in others has been slower. Much has been achieved--"the private share of GDP in the transition countries is nearly 70 percent, and 8 countries have joined the EU--"but much remains to be completed.

Tiivistelmä.

To date, the record of economic transition has decidedly been mixed. The worldwide political climate is still in favor of economic reform and the process continues to have considerable momentum. On the other hand, this process now faces a number of formidable obstacles. There appears to be general agreement that in many countries the promise of a better standard of living which economic transition offers to the mass of the citizenry has failed to produce the rapid and dramatic results hoped for. There is an increasing conflict of interest between multinational firms and the national business community. Moreover, many transition economies have experienced a slowing of economic growth in real terms and social services have been severely cut.This book deals with the development of those forces that have played a major role in the successes and failures of economic transition. Its distinctive feature is that it does this from the perspective of economic, political and social analysis, taking into account both theoretical constructs and economic realities for those countries which have attempted the grand experiment with economic transition.

The transition economies of the Europe and Central Asia Region faced unprecedented political, economic, and social change after the break-up of the Soviet Union. With assistance from the World Bank and other donors, many countries quickly accomplished a number of reforms, but progress in others has been slower. Much has been achieved - the private share of GDP in the transition countries is nearly 70 percent, and 8 countries have joined the EU - but much remains to be completed. 'Economies in Transition' assesses the effectiveness of Bank assistance to the transition, focusing particularly on five topics: 1) private sector development; 2) governance, public sector management, and institution-building; 3) the financial sector; 4) social protection; and 5) energy. Overall Bank assistance has been successful, but there were mistakes before the true nature of transition was fully understood. The Bank internalized the emerging lessons and shifted its emphasis accordingly. This study highlights the importance of lending at prudent levels until a solid knowledge base is established, with convincing evidence of government and societal ownership of the assistance program. It contends that analysis of governance and poverty monitoring should be early features of the assistance program, active programs of stakeholder inclusion should be widely replicated, and country assistance strategies used to bolster reform capacity.