Transformation and Crisis in Central and Eastern Europe ─ Challenges and prospects

The global financial crisis has provided an important opportunity to revisit debates about post-socialist transition and the relative success of different reform paths.

This new volume from a prestigious group of scholars analyzes the resilience of post-communist Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs) to the international crisis, assessing each country’s institutional transformation, policies, and local adaptations in order to take an overall view of the region’s prospects. The book demonstrates that economic performance crucially depends on achieving a sustainable balance between sound institutional design and policies on one hand, and localization on the other.

The volume offers an in depth analysis of a diverse range of countries, including Poland, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine and Slovakia. It takes the reader systematically through transformation strategies and their outcomes, before ending with lessons and conclusions for the future. It offers a fascinating and timely study which will be of interest to all scholars and policy makers with an interest in European Economics, Russian and East European European Studies, Transition Economies, Political Economy and the post-2008 world more generally.

Bruno Dallago is in the Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italy.

Steven Rosefielde is a Professor of Economics at the University of North Carolina, USA.