Published in 1999, this text uses a number of approaches to measure the performance of firms in the transition economies of Central Eastern Europe during the early stages of reform. There is considerable controversy about the level of productivity in this period, as is evident by contradictory evidence quoted in the literature and a high degree of inconsistency in published national statistics. Indeed, the disagreement extends to the measurement approach and the results for this group of countries. Particularly difficult is any analysis at the firm level, as data is inconsistent, incomplete and based on now out-dated accounting systems. The information used in this book is a panel data set of 64 items collected from 1000 firms across 25 industry sectors in Hungary. Productive efficiency is measured and the reasons for poor performance are discussed. It was found that industrial sectors differ in their average performance levels and in the factors most likely to account for this. Finally, recommendations are developed to help to reverse the decline in productivity.

Published in 1999, this text uses a number of approaches to measure the performance of firms in the transition economies of Central Eastern Europe during the early stages of reform. There is considerable controversy about the level of productivity in this period, as is evident by contradictory evidence quoted in the literature and a high degree of inconsistency in published national statistics. Indeed, the disagreement extends to the measurement approach and the results for this group of countries. Particularly difficult is any analysis at the firm level, as data is inconsistent, incomplete and based on now out-dated accounting systems. The information used in this book is a panel data set of 64 items collected from 1000 firms across 25 industry sectors in Hungary. Productive efficiency is measured and the reasons for poor performance are discussed. It was found that industrial sectors differ in their average performance levels and in the factors most likely to account for this. Finally, recommendations are developed to help to reverse the decline in productivity.

The transition from socialism to capitalism in former socialist economies has transformed the economic structure. This book provides an overview of research on the issues raised by the shift from collective to private ownership.

The work is a practical examination of fundamental strategic issues confronted by firms competing in newly opened markets. It covers emerging markets in East Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and the new states of the former Soviet Union.

The Czech Republic and Economic Transition in Eastern Europe is the first in-depth, comparative analysis of the Czech Republic's economic transition after the fall of the Communist bloc. Edited by Jan Svejnar,a principal architect of the Czech economic transformation and Economic Advisor to President Vaclav Havel, the book poses important questions about the Republic and its partners in Central and Eastern Europe. The thirty-five essayists describe the country's macroeconomic performance; its development of capital markets; the structure and performance of its industries; its unemployment, household behavior, and income distribution; and the environmental and health issues it faces.In this in-depth, comparative analysis of the Czech Republic's economic transition, an international team of thirty-five economists examine the Republic and its partners in Central and Eastern Europe. Important questions and issues permeate the essays. For example, prior to 1939 the Czech Republic possessed the most advanced economy in the region; is it capable of reestablishing its dominance? Relative to its neighbors, the Republic ranks especially high on some transition-related performance indicators but low on others. What economic effects are related to the 1993 dissolution of the Czech and Slovak governments? And what can be learned by comparing the economic outcomes of two countries that shared legal and institutional frameworks? Data describe the country's macroeconomic performance; its development of capital markets; the structure and performance of its industries; its unemployment, household behavior, and income distribution; and the environmental and health issues facing it. Its most important contributions are its clarifications of the transition process.The authors included in Transforming Czechoslovakia combine the best available data and techniques of economic analysis to assess the replacement of the inefficient but internally consistent central planning system with a more efficient market system. These authors, among whom are central European economic analysts, senior U.S. economists, and Czechoslovakian professors and economic researchers, discuss the country's macroeconomic performance; its development of capital markets; the structure and performance of its industries; its unemployment, household behavior, and income distribution; and the environmental and health issues facing it. The essays vary between presentations of history and policy and technical examinations of data. Together they offer the most comprehensive and detailed assessment of the country's economic transformation in print.This book is important because its essayists compile results and reach conclusions that are broad and credible. The empirical data were gathered on the ground and have been subjected to advanced methodologies, including game theory, industrial organization, and Granger-Sims causality.

"Estache, Perelman, and Trujillo review about 80 studies on electricity and gas, water and sanitation, and rail and ports (with a footnote on telecommunications) in developing countries. The main policy lesson is that there is a difference in the relevance of ownership for efficiency between utilities and transport in developing countries. In transport, private operators have tended to perform better than public operators. For utilities, ownership often does not matter as much as sometimes argued. Most cross-country studies find no statistically significant difference in efficiency scores between public and private providers. As for the country-specific studies, some do find differences in performance over time but these differences tend to matter much less than a large number of other variables. Across sectors, private operators functioning in a competitive environment or regulated under price caps or hybrid regulatory regimes tend to catch up best practice faster than public operators. There is a very strong case to push regulators in developing and transition economies toward a more systematic reliance on yardstick competition in a sector in which residual monopoly powers tend to be common. This paper--a product of the Office of the Vice President, Infrastructure Network--is part of a larger effort in the network to document the state of the sector"--World Bank web site.

Without energy, there is no well-functioning economy, besides facing social risks. This book provides a systemic approach to energy in Mexico and its relations to the USA arising from the energy reform of the former. It covers the transition from fossil fuels to a low-carbon economy, relying heavily on renewable sources and mitigating climate change risks. Several human knowledge disciplines and topics are covered in the book, including public policy, economics, transboundary issues, electricity and thermal energy, residual biomass use, distributed energy systems and its management, and decision-making tools. An analysis is considered regarding energy issues interaction in the Mexican-USA border, which differ in both countries from pricing and policy, and the work and research that has been developed for transboundary energy trade.

This book provides diagnostic and strategic analysis of the challenges to educational systems in the transition economies of the Eastern and Central Europe and Central Asia. At the outset of the transition many of these countries educational systems had solved problems such as limited access, gender inequalities, and poor quality outputs that still plague other regions of the world. Many policy makers believed that education was not a problem sector in transition countries. This report presents originally unforeseen results which suggest that deep and broad problems are emerging in the sector and were threatening many countries' achievements in education. The region's education systems which once were a good fit with the planned economies and authoritarian political systems are proving to be a poor fit with market economies and more open political systems. Inequities in learning opportunities are increasing at a time when human capital is becoming ever more important in the region's recovery and development. The danger is that in some countries of the region these education problems, left unchecked, could threaten to create a vicious circle that will make poverty and social exclusion a powerful generational inheritance.

IFC Discussion Paper No. 38.QUOTEIt is now universally acknowledged that ownership matters; that private ownership in and of itself is a major determinant of good performance in firms... Decent economic policy and well-functioning legal and administrative institutions... matter greatly as well.QUOTEThis paper looks at what happens when the shift to private ownership gets far out in front of the effort to build the institutional underpinnings of a capitalist economy. The emphasis is on what went wrong and why and what, if anything, can be done to be correct it. Proposals include renationalization and/or postponement of further privatization, both to be accompanied by measures to strengthen the managerial capacities of the state. Neither approach seems likely to produce short-term improvements. The regrettable fact is that governments that botch privatization are equally likely to botch the management of state-owned firms. In a number of Central European transition countries, privatization is living up to expectations; and there is no need for such measures. For institutionally-weak countries, the less dramatic but reasonable short-term course of action is to push ahead more slowly with case- by-case and tender privatization in cooperation with the international assistance community in hopes of producing some success stories that will lead by example.