Monograph of essays (comparison) on economic policies and economic growth trends and issues from the 1950s in Western Europe - discusses economic reconstruction, economic recession, the labour market, unemployment, income redistribution, trade, the EC, inflation, money supply, public expenditure, supply and demand management and regional development policies, monetary policies, fiscal policies, wage policies, financial policies incomes policies, etc., and compares with Eastern Europe. Bibliographys, graphs, maps and references.
Worldwide experience highlights public finance policies that promote economic growth while meeting the need for fundamental public goods. Macroeconomic stability is essential, as large budget deficits retard growth, followed by moderate levels of public spending - around one-third of GDP or less - especially when governance and public administration are weak; that in turn requires efficiency, particularly in areas such as infrastructure, health, education, and social protection; finally, lower income and payroll tax rates can spur investment and employment. The Eastern European and Central Asia countries pioneered flat income taxes without generally suffering revenue losses as a result, but they have not addressed the problem of high payroll taxes and still face many hurdles in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of public spending and revenue generation.
The chance to begin anew seldom occurs. Yet the nearly complete breakdown of the world economy between 1939 and 1945, together with the dominant position of the United States at the end of the war, provided just this opportunity. A new international economic order was built on the ruins of the old. How this happened - and the role of government in economic performance - is the subject of this important and timely book. Written by political scientists, contemporary historians and economists, it includes ten country studies covering all the major industrialized nations in the West: the USA, USSR, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia. In each chapter readers will find information on the main objectives and instruments of economic policy, the institutional framework, where the country started from at the end of the war, and a summary of what happened thereafter both in terms of policies and outcomes. Each chapter also contains data on the country's economic performance, a list of selected dates of important events, and a guide to further reading. The book begins with an overview of the sytem of international trade and payments since the war, and ends with five commentaries drawing attention to contrasts and similarities between the nations. The commentaries feature David Henderson, Head of the Economics Division of the OECD, on the overall economic performance, Charles Feinstein on the influence of different starting points, David Marquand on the effect of different political and institutional structures, and Sidney Pollard on economic policies and traditions. Learning from other countries' experience as well as understanding how they see their own problems is increasingly important with 1992, glasnost', and the problem of international policy coordination between the USA, Japan, and Germany so high on the agenda. No other book provides such a wide-ranging account of how the industrialized world came to be where it is today.
The unprecedented economic, political, and social changes that have followed the east European revolutions of late 1989 rank among the epochal events of the twentieth century. The end of the cold war has opened up far-reaching possibilities for international economic cooperation, which may be able to stimulate economic growth in the region and revive interactions with the global economy. This collection of essays comes to grips with the problems of repositioning the new Eastern economies in the global arena. The contributors address four main themes: freeing up foreign economic sectors through trade liberalization, currency convertibility, and greater access to markets for international capital; the disintegration of the trade payment, pricing, and settlements systems based on the transferable ruble; active participation in the key organizations entrusted with international financial, monetary, and trading regimes; and strategies for using international economic assistance to alleviate adjustment costs with ongoing transition policies
This compact volume is meant as a modest contribution to the ongoing debate on how to transform in particular the radically reforming Eastern European economies into more productive sociopolitical organizations. Although my main focus here is on the economics of reform and east-west assistance, I have tried to embed the multiple technical aspects of restructuring such a resource alloca tion into the context of remaking Eastern Europe. That the volume coincides with the seminal transformations of the communist countries of Eastern Europe is, of course, not fortuitous. But I shall have much less to say about the politi cal transitions from communism to parliamentary democracy, except the ways in which the latter may bolster or hinder the hoped-for economic mutations. In taking stock of where I stand on the issue of "radical reform" of planned economics in general and the CMEA in particular, both still moving targets, I have benefited greatly from participation in formal and informal conferences on economic reform. The product has also profited from many informal discus sions and exchanges of views among friends and colleagues, including those entrusted with and purely interested in efforts on the overall topic of the study launched from within the broad context of the United Nations, my at times reluctant employer.
This book examines the evolution of trade and trade patterns in Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) and assesses the implications of these patterns on structural change and economic development within transition economies. Taking the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 as a starting point, the authors discuss the transition of former communist CEE countries from centrally planned to market-driven economies, arguing that trade was the primary engine for the economic growth and transition process they experienced. The chapters in this book incorporate the results of previous studies – some of which are based on original research conducted by the authors – dedicated to the integration process of international and European trade. More importantly, the authors look at the broader aspects of structural change and economic development, indeed the whole process of economic transformation. Thus, the book moves well beyond the core ‘trade and growth’ framework to look at technological progress, foreign investment, institutional development and structural change in Central and Eastern European countries.
The accession of ten new members to the European Union on May 1st 2004 was among the most significant developments in the history of European integration. Based upon studies conducted by the European Forecasting Network, this 2006 book analysed key aspects of the impact of this enlargement with reference to eight of the ten new Member States, namely the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). It demonstrated that the enlargement had the potential to create profound consequences for both the new Member States and the pre-accession members of the Union, given the unparalleled magnitude of the enlargement, the fact that the CEECs had levels of prosperity and economic development well below the Union average, and their history of participation in centrally planned regimes. The contributions examined regional policy, the debate about accession to the EMU, the macroeconomic trajectories of the Central and Eastern European economies and their likely development.
After the 1998 Russian economic crisis, there are new opportunities for sustained growth in many countries of the former Soviet Union. Against this backdrop, the authors of this book analyze the dynamics of macroeconomic and structural developments in Eastern Europe and Russia, with special attention paid to problems of international and national integration, "Dutch disease" and natural resource dependency, and distortions in institutional reforms. The analysis also sheds light on how these problems have implications for cooperation among OECD-countries. A critical focus is on institutional adjustment and learning, human capital formation, trade and foreign investment. The political economy challenges of stability and growth in the region are highlighted. New empirical findings and comparative policy analysis - including in the field of natural resource policy - are major elements in this publication.
