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The Czech Republic and Economic Transition in Eastern Europe is the first in-depth, comparative analysis of the Czech Republic's economic transition after the fall of the Communist bloc. Edited by Jan Svejnar,a principal architect of the Czech economic transformation and Economic Advisor to President Vaclav Havel, the book poses important questions about the Republic and its partners in Central and Eastern Europe. The thirty-five essayists describe the country's macroeconomic performance; its development of capital markets; the structure and performance of its industries; its unemployment, hou

The extraordinary rising number of the super-rich has reignited the debate about whether wealth inequality facilitates or hinders economic growth. The question is unresolved in part because theories relate to the distribution of wealth, while data relate to the distribution of income. Using a measure of wealth inequality based on Forbes magazine's annual world-wide listing of billionaires for 1987-2007, Sutirtha Bagchi and I find that the effect of politically connected billionaire wealth on growth is strongly negative, whereas the effect of politically unconnected billionaire wealth is indistinguishable from zero.

While China shared many systemic, initial conditions with the transition economies of Central-East Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), it had a more agricultural economy and a more stable political-economic system than many CEE and CIS countries. Unlike most of the CEE and CIS economies, China adopted a strategy of gradual economic transformation that maintained the existing system and created new economic activities on top of it. This enabled China to avoid the transformation depression observed in CEE and CIS, and allowed it to generate high rates of economic growth that have now lasted for almost three decades. At the time of this study, the CEE and CIS economies have also completed a decade or more of respectable economic growth, demonstrating that numerous forms of the transition process can generate long term economic growth. In retrospect, the tradeoff for avoiding an initial depression appears to be the willingness to maintain most of the existing economic and political system rather than embarking on a rapid but incomplete economic and political transformation. With a rising economic instability and political pressure, countries such as Poland and the Soviet Union (CIS) had little choice but to proceed relatively fast. Others, such as East Germany and Czechoslovakia, could have retained the centrally planned system, but they abandoned it and communism rapidly for political reasons. Looking forward, the current situation is an optimistic one, with China, CIS and CEE belonging to the fastest growing regions of the world. It will be interesting to see whether all or only some of these models will turn out to be successful in the long run.

The paper argues that policy conclusions derived from existing theories of economic development may be seriously flawed because the theories do not model correctly the modern-sector labor market. The paper first presents evidence that trade unions and governments frequently exert positive influence not only on firms' wages but also on their employment levels. It then presents models that capture this phenomenon and permit one to determine whether the observed levels of employment are insufficient, optimal, or excessive from the private and social standpoints. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the analysis could be implemented in empirical studies and in practical policy work.

The paper presents an econometric framework for testing the determinants of the industrial-sector earnings in Senegal. Using relatively rich data from the 1976 Industrial Census it is possible to test several hypotheses and generate estimates, some of which could not be obtained within the context of developing countries before. The main results relate to the earnings effects of sex, ethnicbackground, occupational attainment,and industry characteristics (DSE)

"Corruption and the Lava Jato Scandal in Latin America brings together key international and interdisciplinary perspectives to shine new light on Lava Jato, or Operation Car Wash, Latin America's largest corruption scandal to date. Since 2014, this scandal has unfolded in surprising ways to expose collusion between construction companies and state officials in Brazil and 11 other countries. The corruption uncovered amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes and billions of dollars in stolen state funds. The volume features evidence that the main construction company at the center of the scandal was apparently deliberate about seeking business in corrupt markets. It also evaluates the ambiguous role played by the media, whose members often relied uncritically on classified information released by the authorities. The volume further contributes to our understanding with studies on a number of other relevant topics, including: the overlap between corruption and the planning of the Rio Olympics; Mexico and Peru's contrasting responses to Lava Jato; the policy reforms needed to avoid a similar scandal in the future; and the roadmap for how Lava Jato should end. Across fifteen chapters by leading and emerging scholars and practitioners, this book engages with these issues from a balanced and unbiased perspective, including interviews with key stakeholders on both sides of the case. As one of the first book-length studies to deal with Lava Jato in the English language, this ground-breaking volume is a compelling reading for advanced students and researchers in areas including Corruption Studies, Public Ethics, Political Science and Latin American Studies, as well as for practitioners working to make governments more accountable"--