CASE Policy Briefs, Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, economic reforms, Post-communist transition and development issues

Seven lessons from post-communist transition

The 20th anniversary of the beginning of economic reforms in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union provides a good opportunity to comment on the lessons of transition says Andrei Shleifer, a Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He made a top seven list, which might be useful to future reformers. Some of the issues are relevant not only for communist countries; the problems of heavily statist economies are similar.