The Uzbek Model of Economic Development, 1991–91

Uzbekistan has been difficult to classify among the thirty-plus economies in transition during the 1990s and has posed a puzzle, because it is a slow reformer but relatively good performer. This paper argues that there is no simple Uzbek model. Uzbekistan's economic reform process has been inconsistent gradualism through three different phases during the 1990s. Economic performance was due to favourable external conditions during the first half of the 1990s and to reasonably good policy-making, although policy errors in late 1996 led to negative effects. Uzbekistan illustrates the importance of policy, but sheds little light on a debate framed in terms of rapid reform versus gradualism.