Examines the institutional developments in 28 transition economies over the past two decades and concludes that, contrary to popular belief, institutions were not neglected; while personalities mattered as much as policies for outcomes, getting the basic institutions right was the most important aspect of a successful transition.

"This is an outstanding and path-breaking piece of work on the role of institutions and transition as a whole. It reads very much like Douglass North, but unlike North Hartwell provides empirical proofs through regression analysis."

Anders Åslund, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington DC

Autorentext
Christopher A. Hartwell has advised governments on economic issues throughout transition economies for 17 years, living and working in the CIS and throughout Central and Eastern Europe. He holds a PhD from the Warsaw School of Economics and an MPP from Harvard, as well as an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Inhalt
Foreword PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. The Challenge: Economics Literature and the Explanation of Transition PART II: DEFINING AND MEASURING INSTITUTIONS 2. Institutional Systems 3. Types of Institutions Within an Institutional System 4. Applying the Taxonomy in Transition 5. Political Institutions 6. Economic Institutions 7. How to Measure Institutions? Indicators and Proxies PART III: TWO DECADES OF TRANSITION AND INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH: A REVIEW 8. Transition Economics and Explaining 1989-91 9. New Institutional Economics and its Application to Transition Economies PART IV: INSTITUTIONS IN TRANSITION: WERE THEY REALLY NEGLECTED? 10. What was 'Neglected?' And How? 11. Examining the 'Neglect' Argument 12. Institutions Before 1989: The Market under Communism 13. Institutional Change in Transition 14. Political Institutions 15. Economic Institutions 16. The Correlation between Macroeconomic Stabilization and Institutional Change 17. An Econometric Analysis of Institutional Change and Economic Outcomes in Transition 18. Conclusions PART V: THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF INSTITUTIONS IN ECONOMIC OUTCOMES IN TRANSITION 19. Policies versus Institutions: Which is Which? 20. Policies versus Institutions: Which is More Important? 21. Adding a Third Dimension: A New Model of Growth in Transition 22. Results and Analysis 23. Instrumenting for Personality 24. Conclusions PART VI: THE RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF DIFFERENT INSTITUTIONS IN TRANSITION 25. Examining Institutions in Transition 26. Modeling Institutional Influence 27. Results 28. Summary of GLS and GMM Regressions 29. Instrumental Variables: Combating Endogeneity 30. From Politics to Economics 31. From Economics to Politics? 32. Moving Beyond Political to Economic (and Back): Cultural and Initial Factors 33. Regressions 34. Relative Influence of Institutions: Some Conclusions PART VII: CONCLUSION AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 35. Agenda for Further Research