Economic reforms and human development: evidence from transition economies

Do market-oriented economic reforms result in higher levels of human well-being? This article studies the impact of macro-level institutional and infrastructure reforms on the economic, educational and health dimensions of human well-being among 25 transition economies. We use panel data econometrics based on the LSDVC technique to analyse the effects of market-oriented reforms on the human development index (HDI), as a measure of human well-being, from 1992 to 2007. The results show the complexity of reform impacts in transition countries. They show that institutional and economic reforms led to positive economic effect and significant impacts on other dimensions of human development. We find some positive economic impacts from infrastructure sectors reforms. However, not every reform measure appears to generate positive impacts. Large-scale privatizations show negative effects in health and economic outcomes. The overall results show the importance of the interaction among different reform measures and the combined effect of these on human development.     

Poverty and monetary transfers in Belarus: Some options for gradual reforms

In this paper we shall be analyzing gradual poverty reducing reforms for monetary transfers in Belarus. Some evidence is offered in support of the claim that the effectiveness of the existing 'categorical' system of transfers might be improved by redirecting resources to specific groups of households. Using a decomposition of households into socio-economic groups, feasible marginal reforms are suggested, and their robustness is checked by both experimenting with different poverty lines and introducing a simplified form of labour supply responsiveness. Based on these findings, a microsimulation of a hypothetical transfer change among different groups of households is run. According to this microsimulation, all aggregate poverty indicators could be reduced.     

'Industrial demonopolization and competition policy in Poland and Hungary': a comment'

Protestations that ‘neither neoclassical economics nor Western experience offers clear guidelines concerning optimal competition policies towards state-owned firms in a transition economy’ are overly pessimistic. Both sources suggest the importance of attacking barriers to entry into markets, especially when those barriers are associated with vertical integration or exclusive vertical contracts by already dominant enterprises. Beyond this, they demonstrate that different priorities of enforcement are appropriate in transition economies and that competition advocacy is especially important in this context.     

Hidden Economy – an Unknown Quantity? Comparative Analysis of Hidden Economies in Transition Countries, 1989–95

The study investigates the size of the hidden economy and related features, in post-socialist countries. After dealing critically with the approach of Kaufmann and Kaliberda, a method based on household electricity consumption is used to estimate the ratio of the hidden economy to the official GDP in 20 countries. Following a uniform growth in the size of the hidden economy in all the countries at the beginning of their transition, stagnation or further increase was experienced in the CIS countries, while an explicit declining tendency could be seen in the remaining economies. Comparisons show that the ratio of the hidden economy in post-socialist countries is significantly larger than in developed market economies. The paper analyses the relationships between the visible private economy, the advancement of reforms, corruption, and the size of the hidden economy.     

Trade Structure and Trade liberalization: The emerging pattern between the EU and Transition Economies

The purpose of this study is to find empirical evidence for the assumption that trade liberalization unlocks the potential of the Transition Economies (TEs) to achieve technological upgrading, productivity progress and catching-up (in terms of income). The study examines the trade structure now emerging between the European Union (EU) and the TEs in the light of two sets of differently liberalized trade items identified by the European Agreements. The aim is to determine whether trade liberalization has helped to supersede the structures – reflected mainly in the low quality of products – inherited by the TEs from the command economy. The empirical results are interpreted in the light of the Flam-Helpman quality-cycle model. We find evidence of an ongoing division of labor between high quality products (EU) and low quality products (TEs) according to a cycle. The first stage comprises the already well established dominance of quality advantage products by EU countries producing and exporting high-quality products, which crowd out the TEs' production of similar products. The second stage is the exploitation of cost-advantages by TEs in less liberalized trade, and there they appear to achieve better results. All these results may be taken as support for an active government in TEs.     

积极财政政策:理论、实践与政策调整

积极财政政策来源于西方财政理论与实践,这一理论对我国财政理论与实践有着十分重要的影响。结合中国实际情况,积极财政政策应如何调整。     

弱势下的扩张:中国财政状况和政策取向分析

目前以预算内财政收入计算的财政规模很低,但这一指标并没有全面反映我国财政的规模,真实的财政规模其实相当大。用“积极的财政政策和稳健的货币政策”概括1998年以来的宏观调控有失公允,为确保经济增长,中央政府实际上调动了包括货币政策在内的所有政策资源刺激经济。目前,我国债务规模在可控范围之内,真正决定积极财政政策取向的是财政项目的效益等因素,我国积极财政政策已经转向谨慎。正在实行的财政政策有两个显著特点,一是推进公共财政体系建设,这是由我国经济体制改革的总体目标设定的;二是在实行积极财政政策的同时,增加税收,这反映了财政在加强自身建设的同时(提高财政两个比重),竭力完成宏观调控目标的努力。这两个看似矛盾的政策,统一在当前的财政政策中,恰当地反映了转型期财政必须应对的多重目标。     

Comment

Opposite to mainstream economics, (post-) Keynesian economics has defended the need of a discretionary fiscal policy that helps to maintain economic activity at a full employment level, offsetting the cyclical deviations from that level of output. In this sense, it is implicitly assumed that any discretionary management of public finance is, by definition, efficient. The Spanish case shows that public authorities can make an inefficient use of the discretionary room of fiscal policy, thus exacerbating the existing macroeconomic and fiscal imbalances. Consequently, there is a need for rules that constrain the discretionary management of public finance.     

Reforming Undergraduate Instruction in Russia,Belarus, and Ukraine

The authors deal with the restructuring of undergraduate economics instruction at Moscow State University (MSU) since 1989. They examine how closely the reforms at MSU are mirrored by changes at Belarus State University in Minsk and at Kiev State University. They also consider, and often offer an “insider's” perspective on, several issues related to curriculum reform that go beyond what can be determined from published curriculum guides. Specifically, they consider such issues as the training and retraining of faculty members who teach courses in these departments, the use of translated Western textbooks versus locally developed textbooks, and problems that arise in departments where some faculty members teach Western economics but others continue to teach Soviet-style economics.