Enterprise Restructuring And Unemployment In Models Of Transition

This volume is primarily concerned with the first key component of transition: restructuring—the changing behavior of firms and their complex interaction with the labor market, most particularly with unemployment. Chapter 1 gives an overview of firm behavior, restructuring, and the labor market in the transition. Chapter 2 focuses on the effect of output, ownership, and legal form on employment and wages in Central European firms. Chapter 3 explores employment and wage setting in three stages of Hungary's labor market transition. Chapter 4 considers enterprises in the Polish transition. Chapter 5 explains labor market flows in the midst of structural change. Chapter 6 explores the role of unemployment and restructuring in the transition, and chapter 7 presents a numerical model of transition. Emphasis is placed on the Czech and Slovak Republics, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Russia.

This paper develops a model of the process of reallocation of labor from the state sector to the private sector. When growth is exogenously determined, we show that in the initial stages of transition unemployment will rise over time. After a critical stage in the transition process, restructuring is accompanied by a decline in unemployment. When growth is endogenously determined, and human capital is acquired by learning-by-doing, we show that whether restructuring eventually occurs is determined by the level of human capital in the private sector and the rate of unemployment. The effects of various shocks and government policies in affecting the costs, speed, and eventual outcome of restructuring are analyzed.

Over the last decade, more than one hundred fifty thousand large enterprises in twenty seven transition countries have encountered revolutionary changes in every aspect of their political and economic environments. Some enterprises have responded to the challenge, entering world markets with great dynamism and becoming indistinguishable from their competitors in mature market economies. Others remain mired in their past, undergoing protracted deaths, delayed at times by their slippage into a netherworld of barter and ersatz money. Thus the revolutionary changes in transition countries have been matched by great variation in the degree to which enterprises have responded successfully to events. To assess the effectiveness of the different reform and privatization strategies, empirical research on transition countries has examined enterprise level data to ascertain whether enterprises have responded productively to changes in ownership and to other reform measures. This volume provides a general assessment of the evidence generated by these studies. In providing the assessment, it: discusses the general context of the studies; assesses the evidence on whether state-owned or privatized firms undertake more economic restructuring; studies the effects of restructuring on different types of owners; focuses on the role of managers; analyzes the effect of greater discipline in the government's reaction to enterprises in distress; examines how variations in product market competition affect enterprise restructuring; and examines the role of the institutional and legal framework. This publication will be of interest to policy makers and readers interested in gaining an overview of the current state of the evidence.

This title was first published in 2001: Exploring the relationship between the recession and labour supply in Kazakhstan during the 1990s, this volume develops an innovative new model of the transitional process in the context of the CIS. It departs from conventional economic models explaining the process of transition, transferring the focus of attention from labour demand to labour supply with a view to clarifying how the transitional recession has affected households and, in turn, how these changes modified the supply of labour. Paolo Verme examines how the dynamic of the reallocation of labour between state and private enterprises has been drastically altered by the growth of self-employment and also takes a much-needed look at the contribution of other factors, offering an original explanation of this most important economic phenomenon.

Considers the achievements and challenges facing East Asia's workers. The report reviews labor outcomes and evaluates the benefits of rapid growth to workers and the impact that the region's role in the global economy has had on them. It also examines labor market policies and institutions in the region, labor in the transition economies, and the outlook for East Asian workers in the 21st century. Also available: World Development Report 1995: Workers in an Integrating World Stock no. 61102 (ISBN 0-19-521102-2).

Celebrating twenty years of transition from socialism to capitalism, this book is designed to be the core textbook for undergraduate courses in transition economics and comparative economic systems. Given the passage of time, Transition Economics: Two Decades On reviews and accounts for the outcomes in the so-called transition economies and, from an academic perspective, takes the reader through developments and issues in the twenty years of transition from plan to market. Treating its subject matter thematically, the book incorporates much of the transition economics literature and evidence that have evolved over the past two decades. In particular, the authors focus on the most important aspects of economic transition, including: The initial conditions at the outset of transition Paradigms and patterns of transition The main transition policies and economic reforms The performance of transition countries and firms The lessons from transition The textbook covers a wide range of both contemporary microeconomic and macroeconomic issues, in over thirty ex-socialist European and Asian countries, including Russia and China. Transition Economics: Two Decades On is more than just a book about a particular part of the world or the transformation that was experienced at a particular time in history. The authors believe that the study of the economics of transition gives the reader an insight into theories, policies, reforms, legacies, institutions, processes and lessons that have application and relevance, beyond the specific transition from plan to market, to other parts of the world and to other times in history.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Central European economies have been moving rapidly toward a common set of goals: political democracy, market-oriented economies and integration into the European and international business community. For businesses, Central Europe offers a unique window of opportunity and, in particular, two comparative advantages: a low-cost qualified workforce and stronger growth rates than mature Western European economies. This opportunity, seized by local entrepreneurs and foreign enterprises alike, is a significant competitive threat to companies not present in the region, or who have not found alternative strategies for increased growth and competitiveness. This book addresses economic transitions in Central Europe and analyzes the problems of Central European integration in the European Union.