Privatization and Economic Reform in Central Europe

A fundamental characteristic of the global economy during the 1990s is the reinvigoration of the private sector as the driving force for economic growth and social progress. This book surveys Central Europe during the early period of transition from late 1989 to early 1993, when governments were experimenting with privatization and economic reform, and assesses how privatization and economic reform policies have changed the business climate there. Rondinelli and his contributors provide an overview of economic reforms in Central European countries, offer a framework by which to compare them, describe the approaches to privatization their governments adopted, and identify the problems and challenges that each country faces in attempting to create a market-oriented economy. The result is a valuable resource for international management, international trade policy makers, and scholars of international business.

The process of economic restructuring is especially important and particularly complex in Central Europe, where Poland, Hungary, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Slovenia, and other independent states of former Yugoslavia are struggling to transform themselves from socialist to market economies. Each country faces equally complex challenges, however, in creating a new business climate that will nourish domestic enterprise and attract investments by multinational corporations. These challenges include: (1) privatizing state-owned enterprises that have dominated the economies of socialist countries; (2) developing public policies and programs that support the private sector, especially small- and medium-scale enterprises; (3) decentralizing the state administrative structure to allow regional and local governments to play a more active role in providing public services and supporting private enterprise; and (4) restructuring industry, agriculture, and services in order to diversify and reinvigorate the economic base (including infrastructure) of regions surrounding cities that are still dominated by heavy (and now largely obsolescent) manufacturing industries.

This book surveys the situation in Central Europe during the early period of transition in the early 1990s when governments in all four countries were experimenting with privatization and economic reform. The authors assess how privatization and economic reform policies have changed the business climate in this important region of the world. The editor provides an overview of economic reforms in Central European countries, offers a framework by which to compare them, describes the approaches to privatization their governments adopted, and identifies the problems and challenges that each country faces in attempting to create a market-oriented economy.

DENNIS A. RONDINELLI is Professor of International Business and Director of the International Private Enterprise Development Research Center at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill./e Prior to joining the Kenan Institute, Rondinelli was principal research scientist and senior policy analyst in the Office of International Programs at the Research Triangle Institute and held faculty positions at Syracuse University's Maxwell Graduate School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and Vanderbilt University's Graduate School of Management. He has published 11 books and more than 140 articles in professional and scholarly journals on international economic development, privatization, and international development management.