Publication overview

Russian Dilemmas

Abstract

The performance of the "transition economies" varies from very encouraging to agonising. For the major successor states to the Soviet Union, the transition is proving a long, hard road. Recovery is just around the corner, we are told, but so far that corner stays at least another block away. In this paper, we want to discuss some aspects of the legacy of the socialist past that make Russia's (or Ukraine's) macroeconomic policy problems rather different from those of the Latin American countries whose stabilisations are often cited as models for the USSR successor states. In particular, we want to consider (1) the structure of the inherited capital stock and (2) the lack of financial instruments, institutions, and markets.