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Transition: The First Decade
Journal of Comparative Economics 31 (2003) 381–383 www.elsevier.com/locate/jce
Transition: The First Decade ˆ Edited by Mario I. Blejer and Marko Skreb. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2002. vi + 516 pp., index, notes, $60.00. In addition to the introductory essay by the editors, this volume bundles 14 papers that purport to present a comprehensive overview of the first decade of transition in the part of Europe that used to be under Communist political control with some form of administrative planning of resource allocation. The introductory chapter is by Johannes Linn of the World Bank and Jacques de Larosière, formerly of the IMF and EBRD, authors the concluding essay. The papers are divided into two parts. In addition to the overview essay, the first part of the book comprises two papers, one by Linn and the other by Grzegorz Kołodko, who was at the time of writing at the IMF and the World Bank. The concluding cursory note by de Larosière falls into this category although it is included among the country experiences in the second part. Linn’s paper offers a highly data-driven overview of macroeconomic achievements with some negative side effects, as perceived through the World Bank’s lenses. Kołodko’s paper is essentially about coming to grips with issues concerning the intellectual foundations and practical usefulness of the Washington Consensus largely from a former Polish policy maker’s perspective. The concluding paper by de Larosière, quaintly but unimaginatively entitled “transition economies,” offers a paean to the basics of reforming a generic centrally planned economy as seen through the author’s former institutional affiliations and experiences. The second part of the book comprises 11 papers on individual countries (in sequence: the former GDR by Jürgen von Hagen and Rolf R. Strauch, Poland by Marek Dabrowski, ˛ fiscal policy in Hungary by László Halpern and Judit Neményi, the Czech Republic by Vladimír Dlouhý, Croatia’s second-stage reform by Velimir Šonje and Boris Vujˇci´c, fiscal policy in Slovenia by Velimer Bole, the economic consequences of soft budget constraints under socialism for the Russian transformation by Yegor Gaidar, Belarus’ command economy by Domenico M. Nuti, the obstacles to reform in Ukraine by Anders Åslund, Bulgaria by Ilian Mihov, and Romania by Daniel D˘aianu). Although some papers of this group take stock of the first decade of transition in the countries chosen, most examine one or another angle of the macroeconomic experiences and sometimes for one subperiod of the decade only. Institutional innovation and microeconomic restructuring are consistently given short shrift, in spite of the importance placed on these aspects of transformation by Linn and others. 0147-5967/2003 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Association for Comparative Economic Studies. doi:10.1016/S0147-5967(02)00017-3
382
Book reviews / Journal of Comparative Economics 31 (2003) 381–383
Given the nature and considerable diversity of these papers, I find it all but impossible to discuss their individual merits or indeed to single out one or a few as clearly superior. Each paper stands on its own. Even when the same or a similar topic is addressed, the authors put an individual spin on the issues at hand. Some papers go into, at times excruciating, details, even to the point of elaborating the intricacies of econometric tests and analyses (as for Croatia). A volume that purports to address the findings of a decade of common policies in a highly diverse group of countries (one chapter’s authors even designate it as a syntagma, which I understand to mean something like a treatise or definite, comprehensive compilation of texts, which this book is anything but) should, in my view, have at least a common structure and, where possible, base the analyses on one coherent set of data. It should also present facts and figures as accurately and up to date as possible. Furthermore, the reader should be entitled to expect at least editorial consistency and some professionalism in presentation. This volume fails egregiously on all scores. Summarizing a decade of transition experiences, even when confined to sheer economics and omitting some countries (such as the Baltics, Slovakia, and most of the CIS states), is by no means an easy task. However, it might have been more productive, and useful for the reader, if the initiators of the project had attempted to develop a coherent framework for commissioning the investigations. At the very least, a concluding chapter capturing salient features of such a framework and encapsulating the lessons learned from the investigations would have been appropriate. Neither is in evidence. The introduction at best coaxes the principal points of the papers into a few summary sentences without any attempt to draw conclusions or provide guidelines beyond the bland self-evident ones. A more cohesive framework, either as guideline or by way of a conclusion, would have placed the topics addressed within the broader context of transformations in the eastern part of Europe. It would also have facilitated the elimination of duplications or contradictions and urged the authors to bring their papers up to date (most seem to have been drafted in 1998 or 1999, with data generally ending with 1997). A good number of the points made in these papers appear in various published works by these and many other analysts. Editorial control, on the part of both the volume’s patrons and the publisher, was uniformly sloppy, putting it mildly. Greater diligence in the editing, proofreading, and production processes would have ensured correct spelling (including consistent diacriticals), identical acronym expansions, consistent and standard English and transliteration, and professional word processing and type setting. A list of the cited acronyms and a better-designed index would have been useful. Author affiliations are hidden in the endnotes and specified for only three papers! When I first glanced at this tome, its considerable size and highly laudatory blurbs by a distinguished cast of observers struck me. If a book were to be judged, as lore has it, by its cover, this volume would undoubtedly be a hit, though its stylish cover hardly reflects the volume’s contents. Among the blurbs, Rostowski claims that, 20 years from now, this volume will remain “worth reading.” I doubt it very much, even for the near term. A professional press, certainly a university press, should be able to produce a better product qua content and presentation. At the hefty list price, I wonder whether many readers will find it worth their while to procure the book. Selective reading of some papers,
Book reviews / Journal of Comparative Economics 31 (2003) 381–383
383
especially on countries more rarely covered in the literature, may be rewarding as a quick introduction. Jozef M. van Brabant United Nations New York, NY 10163-0020, USA
Transition: The First Decade ˆ Edited by Mario I. Blejer and Marko Skreb. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2002. vi + 516 pp., index, notes, $60.00. In addition to the introductory essay by the editors, this volume bundles 14 papers that purport to present a comprehensive overview of the first decade of transition in the part of Europe that used to be under Communist political control with some form of administrative planning of resource allocation. The introductory chapter is by Johannes Linn of the World Bank and Jacques de Larosière, formerly of the IMF and EBRD, authors the concluding essay. The papers are divided into two parts. In addition to the overview essay, the first part of the book comprises two papers, one by Linn and the other by Grzegorz Kołodko, who was at the time of writing at the IMF and the World Bank. The concluding cursory note by de Larosière falls into this category although it is included among the country experiences in the second part. Linn’s paper offers a highly data-driven overview of macroeconomic achievements with some negative side effects, as perceived through the World Bank’s lenses. Kołodko’s paper is essentially about coming to grips with issues concerning the intellectual foundations and practical usefulness of the Washington Consensus largely from a former Polish policy maker’s perspective. The concluding paper by de Larosière, quaintly but unimaginatively entitled “transition economies,” offers a paean to the basics of reforming a generic centrally planned economy as seen through the author’s former institutional affiliations and experiences. The second part of the book comprises 11 papers on individual countries (in sequence: the former GDR by Jürgen von Hagen and Rolf R. Strauch, Poland by Marek Dabrowski, ˛ fiscal policy in Hungary by László Halpern and Judit Neményi, the Czech Republic by Vladimír Dlouhý, Croatia’s second-stage reform by Velimir Šonje and Boris Vujˇci´c, fiscal policy in Slovenia by Velimer Bole, the economic consequences of soft budget constraints under socialism for the Russian transformation by Yegor Gaidar, Belarus’ command economy by Domenico M. Nuti, the obstacles to reform in Ukraine by Anders Åslund, Bulgaria by Ilian Mihov, and Romania by Daniel D˘aianu). Although some papers of this group take stock of the first decade of transition in the countries chosen, most examine one or another angle of the macroeconomic experiences and sometimes for one subperiod of the decade only. Institutional innovation and microeconomic restructuring are consistently given short shrift, in spite of the importance placed on these aspects of transformation by Linn and others. 0147-5967/2003 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Association for Comparative Economic Studies. doi:10.1016/S0147-5967(02)00017-3
382
Book reviews / Journal of Comparative Economics 31 (2003) 381–383
Given the nature and considerable diversity of these papers, I find it all but impossible to discuss their individual merits or indeed to single out one or a few as clearly superior. Each paper stands on its own. Even when the same or a similar topic is addressed, the authors put an individual spin on the issues at hand. Some papers go into, at times excruciating, details, even to the point of elaborating the intricacies of econometric tests and analyses (as for Croatia). A volume that purports to address the findings of a decade of common policies in a highly diverse group of countries (one chapter’s authors even designate it as a syntagma, which I understand to mean something like a treatise or definite, comprehensive compilation of texts, which this book is anything but) should, in my view, have at least a common structure and, where possible, base the analyses on one coherent set of data. It should also present facts and figures as accurately and up to date as possible. Furthermore, the reader should be entitled to expect at least editorial consistency and some professionalism in presentation. This volume fails egregiously on all scores. Summarizing a decade of transition experiences, even when confined to sheer economics and omitting some countries (such as the Baltics, Slovakia, and most of the CIS states), is by no means an easy task. However, it might have been more productive, and useful for the reader, if the initiators of the project had attempted to develop a coherent framework for commissioning the investigations. At the very least, a concluding chapter capturing salient features of such a framework and encapsulating the lessons learned from the investigations would have been appropriate. Neither is in evidence. The introduction at best coaxes the principal points of the papers into a few summary sentences without any attempt to draw conclusions or provide guidelines beyond the bland self-evident ones. A more cohesive framework, either as guideline or by way of a conclusion, would have placed the topics addressed within the broader context of transformations in the eastern part of Europe. It would also have facilitated the elimination of duplications or contradictions and urged the authors to bring their papers up to date (most seem to have been drafted in 1998 or 1999, with data generally ending with 1997). A good number of the points made in these papers appear in various published works by these and many other analysts. Editorial control, on the part of both the volume’s patrons and the publisher, was uniformly sloppy, putting it mildly. Greater diligence in the editing, proofreading, and production processes would have ensured correct spelling (including consistent diacriticals), identical acronym expansions, consistent and standard English and transliteration, and professional word processing and type setting. A list of the cited acronyms and a better-designed index would have been useful. Author affiliations are hidden in the endnotes and specified for only three papers! When I first glanced at this tome, its considerable size and highly laudatory blurbs by a distinguished cast of observers struck me. If a book were to be judged, as lore has it, by its cover, this volume would undoubtedly be a hit, though its stylish cover hardly reflects the volume’s contents. Among the blurbs, Rostowski claims that, 20 years from now, this volume will remain “worth reading.” I doubt it very much, even for the near term. A professional press, certainly a university press, should be able to produce a better product qua content and presentation. At the hefty list price, I wonder whether many readers will find it worth their while to procure the book. Selective reading of some papers,
Book reviews / Journal of Comparative Economics 31 (2003) 381–383
383
especially on countries more rarely covered in the literature, may be rewarding as a quick introduction. Jozef M. van Brabant United Nations New York, NY 10163-0020, USA