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• Featured Reading
• Other Web Resources
• Other Reading

Featured Reading:

Romania, Lessons from the Investors Roadmap: Implementation Challenges and An Exploratory Assessment of the Major Barriers to Rural Entrepreneurship from a New Institutional Economic Perspective, Paul Dragos Aligica, Fellow, Peter Leeson, Christopher Coyne, Graduate Fellows, Mercatus Center at George Mason University, 17 September, 2003 (PDF, 1 MB)

Rhetoric and Reform, A Case Study of Institution Building in Montenegro, 1998 – 2001

Inflation and Deflation in Central and Eastern Europe ICEG European Center  (PDF, 236 kb)

Getting the Most From Your Board, Managing Think Tanks, Raymond J. Struyk (PDF, 135 kb)

“Political and economic orientations in Southeast Europe in 2000. Part I: Economic orientations in Southeast Europe in 2000” Author: Jordan Vassilev Jordanov, Ph. D.

Albanians After Kosovo Crisis of 1999 (Field Cases in the Urgent Anthropology of the Balkans), by Dr. Antonina Zhelyazkova, International Centre for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations (Requires Microsoft Word)

From regime change to sustained growth in Central and Eastern Europe, by Ivan Berend, Economic Survey of Europe 2000 №2000 2/3, p. 41-54

Web page: www.unece.org/ead/ead_h.htm

Main issues:

• Transformational crisis versus peripheral structural crisis;
• Adjustment and recovery;
• Transnationalization – its pros and cons;

Macroeconomic policies and achievements in transition economies, 1989 – 1999, by Stanislav Gomulka, Economic Survey of Europe 2000 №2/3, p. 69-83

Web page: www.unece.org/ead/ead_h.htm

Main issues:

• The macroeconomic framework: what progress?
• What distinguish the more successful from the less successful countries?
• How far have weak or missing institutions hampered effectual policy-making?
• Has too much emphasis been placed on lowering inflation-or reducing it too rapidly-at the expense of economic growth?

Monetary policy and transition in South-East Europe, by Gligor Bishev, Balkan Reconstruction (WIIW Vienna 2000), p.11-37

Web page: www.wiiw.ac.at

Main issues:

• Factors determining monetary policy strategy;
• Monetary policy stance;
• Monetary framework: money supply and inflation;
• Openness of South-East Europe towards the world and the EU.

Trade and trade policies in South-East Europe, by Patrick Messerlin and Jean-Christophe Maur, Balkan Reconstruction (WIIW Vienna 2000), p. 79-95

Web page: www.wiiw.ac.at

Main issues:

• Current SEEC trade policies : non-uniform, discriminatory and protectionist;
• The costs of a regional free trade area (or custom union);
• An alternative: an unique and uniform intra-regional tariff;
• SEEC-EC trade and EC policy towards the SEEC`s.

Economic growth, reconstruction and development in South-East Europe: What prospects after a decade of decline?, by Rumen Dobrinsky, Balkan Reconstruction (WIIW Vienna 2000), p. 233-255

Web page: www.wiiw.ac.at

Main issues:

• Economic growth in South-East Europe: a longer-term perspective;
• Economic self-destruction and the transformation growth trap;
• The policy challenge in the transformation paradigm;
• What are the prospects for the Balkan region?

Trust in transition, by Martin Raiser, Working Paper №39 (prepared in April 1999), European Bank for reconstruction and Development

Web page: www.ebrd.org/index.htm

Main issues:

• Central planning – a legacy of distrust;
• Recombining networks – efficiency or exclusion?
• Process – based trust – old versus new networks;
• Global networks – linkages or dualism?
• Extended trust, economic opportunities and the state in transition;
• The role of policy.

Evaluating and Enhancing Bulgaria` Competitiveness, by Radoslav Krastev and Clive Gray, Report A (September 2000), Consulting Assistance on Economic Reform, Harvard institute for International Development

E-mail: caer@hiid.harvard.edu

Main issues:

• Bulgaria in the 1999 Global Competitiveness Report;
• Competition and Economic Growth;
• Concentration of Bulgarian industry;
• The need to enhance competition in Bulgarian industry;
• Bulgaria`s foreign trade regime;
• Opposition to trade liberalization in Bulgaria;
• Competition in markets for nontradables;
• Economies of scale and natural monopolies;
• Measures to promote competition – the role of government.

Power and Prosperity, by Mancur Olson, published by Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group

Main issues:

• The logic of power;
• Rational individuals and irrational societies;
• Governance and economic growth;
• The sources of low enforcement and corruption;
• The theory of Soviet-type autocracies;
• The evolution of communism and its legacy;
• Implications for the transition;
• The kinds of markets needed for prosperity.

Why transition may be more successful than you think it is^*, Andrew Warner, Report J (November 2000), Consulting Assistance on Economic Reform, Harvard institute for International Development

E-mail: caer@ksg.harvard.edu

Main issues:

• An example of rapid structural change: Bulgaria 1997-2000;
• Private sector growth rates in all transition countries;
• Sources of growth in Bulgaria;
• Simulations of Bulgarian GDP under two hypothetical cases.
   

Other Web Resources:

The Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LFMI) (http://www.freema.org/), a private non-profit organization established in 1990 to promote the ideas of classical liberalism based on the principles of individual freedom and responsibility, free market, and limited government.  

The Transition Online web site (www.tol.cz) is dedicated to using Internet technologies to help strengthen the professionalism, independence, and impact of journalism--and individual journalists--in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union.

The WWW Balkan Observatory, (http://www.wiiw.ac.at/balkan/longterm.html), has a lot of resources relevant to a variety of issues facing Southeast Europe, including, A Moral Economy of Anti-Corruption Sentiments in Transition, Constitutional Quandaries in Southeast Europe, Disinflation and Labor Market Distortions: Lessons from Slovenia and many more.

Political and geopolitical background about the Balkans region can be gleaned from the full-text reports of the International Crisis Group (http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/projects/program.cfm?typeid=3) and the articles - authored by local journalists and outside experts - on the Institute for War and Peace Reporting Web site (http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?balkans_index.html).

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has two excellent and free reports, delivered by e-mail to subscribers - the Balkan report
http://www.rferl.org/balkan-report/ and the South Slavic report (http://www.rferl.org/southslavic/)

The online version of the Southeast European Politics Journal, published by Central European University, provides in-depth political and geopolitical analyses (http://www.seep.ceu.hu/).

The Balkan Academic New list in unparalleled and depth and width of coverage (http://www.seep.ceu.hu/balkans/). For a survey of the terrain from the local point of view, visit Serbianna (http://www.serbianna.com/) or the vitriolic and thought-provoking "Emperor's New Clothes" (http://www.emperors-clothes.com/). Another recommended resource is the East West Institute (http://www.iews.org/). Other good sources of news coverage - including economic and financial news - are the Southeast Europe Regional News (http://www.seeurope.net).

The European Internet network maintains a Balkan portal which covers the politics and economies of the region http://www.europeaninternet.com/balkans/. Another source of scholarly information is the Center for Southeast European Studies (http://www.csees.net/). The Vienna based SEEMO (http://www.seemo.at/ is a network and advocacy group of journalists, editors, and media outlets throughout the region.

For alternative - and multilingual - views about the republics of former Yugoslavia and Albania, visit AIM - Alternative Information Network in former Yugoslavia (http://www.aimpress.org/index.htm). A solid directory of Balkan links can be found in Balkan Peace http://www.uottawa.ca/associations/balkanpeace/links.html. Geoscopie provides a French perspectives and rare links (http://www.geoscopie.com/).

Following the Kosovo war, the region benefits from a host of US and European Union driven reconstruction plans. The European Commission and the World Bank maintain an excellent Web site about the various credits, grants, technical assistance, and regional cooperation programs (http://www.seerecon.org/). The biggest of these initiatives, the Stability Pact maintains a separate - and well worth visiting - Web site (http://www.stabilitypact.org/).

The next stop is somewhat surprising. The US European Command (EUCOM) maintains an excellent Web site called "Balkan Times" (formerly the Balkan Exchange). It has a constantly updated section about the economy http://www.balkantimes.com.

Visitors to the Balkan Regional Center for Trade Promotion (http://www.balcantrade.org/) can find information about the economies of countries in the region, various cross-border initiatives, and useful addresses. Southeast Europe Online (http://www.southeasteurope.org/) lists reconstruction and development projects and NGO's operating in the area. Both Central Europe Review (http://www.ce-review.org/) and Transitions Online (http://www.tol.cz/) carry numerous articles about Balkan economies. CER's archive is free, TOL's requires a paid subscription.

Kasna (http://www.kasna.com/) provide analyses of economic sectors throughout the region as well as B2C and B2B services. If you care to learn about taxation - this is the Web site for you - TaxUp Central and Eastern Europe (http://www.taxup.com/eastern_europe).

World in Conflict and Economies in Transition (http://ceeandbalkan.tripod.com) contains more than 200 articles about the economies of the region with emphasis on the former republics of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.
 

Other Reading:

CEPS - Europa South-East Monitor February 2001 Edition
(Requires Microsoft Word, 82 kb)
Download Europa South-East Monitor

The Balkan Pages
http://www.igc.apc.org/balkans/index2.html

Radio Free Europe - The Balkans Report
http://www.rferl.org/balkan-report/

Blunder in the Balkans
The Clinton Administration's Bungled War against Serbia
www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-345es.html

Balkans In Depth - US Institute for Peace
http://www.usip.org/oc/in-depth/balkans_in-depth.html

Former Yugoslavia in Cyberspace
www.igc.apc.org/balkans/web1.html

The Washington Post - Balkans Special Report
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/balkans/overview/overview.htm

ABC News - A Beginner's Guide to the Balkans
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/balkans/

East-West European Business Portal
http://www.centreurope.org/

Tech Central Station
http://www.techcentralstation.com
A free-market oriented, on-line think tank focusing on the intersection between technology, investing, and public policy.

The Stockholm Network
http://www.stockholm-network.org/
A dynamic working group of European market-oriented think-tanks with two primary objectives: to build a wide network of pro-market policy specialists within Europe and to use that network to influence the future direction of European policy-making on issues of pan-European importance.

The Independent Review, 8, Number 1, 2003, pp. 138-41
Transition; the First Decade (Word 50 kb)
Transition is a report card on the first decade of the transformation of central and eastern  European countries into free-market, private-property economies.

Institute for Economic Studies Europe
http://www.ieseurope.org/
Since 1989, the Institute has aimed at discovering, developing and supporting the most outstanding people it could find among students, scholars and other intellectuals who share an interest in exploring and applying the principles of classical liberalism.

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