Pension Reform in Hungary
Peter Gedeon
IWH-Sonderhefte,
No. 5,
2000
Abstract
In Hungary social policy reforms in general and the pension reform in particular followed the introduction of the institutions of market economy with a considerable time lag, if at all. Although it was clear from the outset that the communist welfare state could not be sustained, comprehensive institutional reforms in the pension or health care systems were not introduced in the first six years of the postsocialist transition. This uneasiness to reform the social security systems has to do with the contradicting constraints decision makers have to face in the process of systemic change.
Read article
Financial crisis and problems yet to solve - Conference proceedings
IWH-Sonderhefte,
No. 6,
2000
Abstract
Since the beginning of 1997, a currency and/or banking crisis broke out in several transition countries (Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic, Russia, Ukraine). In 1995, Hungary avoided a financial crisis by adjusting properly her macroeconomic policies. Financial markets in transition countries are still small. They gain, however, more and more importance for the entire economy. Part of the countries mentioned are candidates for EU membership. They have to show their ability to stabilize their exchange rates and financial sectors. The fact that overcoming the financial crisis in Asia and Latin America required international assistance (e.g. IMF) underlines the political importance of strategies of preventing such crises in the EU's immediate neighborhood.
Read article
Structural change, specialization patterns, and the productivity gap between Central and Eastern Europe and the European Union
Johannes Stephan
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 13,
2000
Abstract
The transition countries of Central East Europe exhibit significantly lower productivity levels than that of the average of the 15 European Union countries. Since the outset of transition, however, this gap has clearly narrowed.
Next to technological and organisational factors it is sectoral structures which play an important role for the development and level of national productivities: in most transition economies, structural change clearly contributed positively to productivity growth. Poland is an exception here, no significant effect of structural change between sectors and industrial branches on the growth of the national productivity level could be found. The low intensity of structural adjustment in Poland in particular in the agricultural sector corresponds with a decisive role played by the sectoral pattern of specialisation within the European division of labour as determinant of the productivity gap. Hungary and to some degree also Slovenia, the country with the lowest productivity gap, exhibit similar results. Only in the cases of the Czech Republic and Slovakia remain negligible the explanatory powers of respective patterns of specialisation as productivity determinants.
Read article
The incomplete transformation - East Germany's economy ten years after the introduction of the D-Mark
Rüdiger Pohl
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 8,
2000
Abstract
Von Anfang an gehört zur ostdeutschen Transformation, dass positive und negative Bewertungen ihrer Ergebnisse und Auswirkungen nebeneinander bestehen. Gewinner und Verlierer der Transformation, Erfolg gegen Misserfolg: in diesen Begriffspaaren zeigt sich die Ambivalenz der ostdeutschen Entwicklung. Zehn Jahre nach Einführung der DMark hat sich an den harten Kontrasten in den Urteilen nichts geändert.
Read article
Transition from Planned to Market Economies Ten Years on
Jens Hölscher, Johannes Stephan
Osteuropa-Wirtschaft,
No. 2,
2000
Abstract
Read article
Trade structure and trade liberalization. The emerging pattern between the EU and transition economies
Hubert Gabrisch, Maria Luigia Segnana
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 108,
1999
Abstract
Read article
The Asian and the Russian financial crises: Propagation effects and policy responses in Central Europe's transition economies
Lucjan T. Orlowski
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 104,
1999
Abstract
Read article
Privatization, restructuring and FDI in transition economies: Are bad debts a problem?
Axel Brüggemann
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 78,
1998
Abstract
Read article
East German economy: no reason for resignation
Joachim Ragnitz, Rüdiger Pohl
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 7,
1998
Abstract
Der Artikel gibt einen Überblick über die gesamtwirtschaftliche Lage in Ostdeutschland im Jahre 1998. Eingeschlossen sind Analysen über die wichtigsten Wirtschaftssektoren und den Arbeitsmarkt. Darüber hinaus werden wirtschaftspolitische Schlussfolgerungen abgeleitet
Read article
The role of real exchange rates in the Central European transformation
Lucjan T. Orlowski
Forschungsreihe,
No. 1,
1998
Abstract
The study eamines the interactions between real exchange rates, current accounts and capital account balances in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The empirical investigation leads to a strong endorsement of more flexible exchange rates in the present stage of the economic transformation process of the former socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Exchange rate flexibility allows more independent monetary policies that focus on financing structural adjustments and institutional changes in transition economies. However, the integration process with the European Union and more remote considerations of possible accession to the European Monetary Union will require a gradual move to fixed exchange rates and to an exchangerate-based monetary policy.
Read article