Abstract
Experience of privatisation in Eastern Europe for almost four years (1990–1993) has left many questions open. Political debate about the basic aims and results of privatisation has been uninterrupted despite the remarkable increase of the private sector’s share in GDP. Most of the discussion described here will be confined to the transfer of ownership rights of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to private hands. It will be kept in mind, however, that privatisation in its broader sense does not mean only this “top-down” process, but also covers a “bottom-up” process — the simultaneous growth of genuine private business. We shall look at the interrelationship between the two processes determining the growth of the private sector.
The Vienna Institute for Comparative Economic Studies (WIIW).
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Footnotes
For the introduction of the notion of deep and surface privatisation see Hunya, G. (1991), “Speed and level of privatisation of big enterprises in Eastern Europe — General concepts and Hungarian Practice”, WIIW Research Reports, no. 176, November, reprinted in The Transition from Commandto Market Economies in East-Central Europe (1992), Richter, S. (ed.), Westview Press, Boulder.
For comparative studies on economic transformation see: UN Economic Commission for Europe (1993), Economic Survey of Europe in 1992–1993, New York;
Grosser, I. (1993), “Shared aspirations, diverging results”, WIIW Research Reports, no. 191, February;
Hunya, G. (1993), “Frictions in the economic transformation of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland”, WIIW Research Reports, no. 190, February.
Lipton, D., and Sachs, J. (1990), “Privatization in Eastern Europe: The case of Poland”, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, no. 2;
Triska, D. (1990). “Privatization in post-communist Czechoslovakia”, mimeo.
Borensztein, E. (1993), “The Strategy of Reform in the Centrally Planned Economies of Eastern Europe: Lessons and Challenges”. IMF Papers on Policy Analysis and Assessment.
Even the simple way of privatisation by liquidation takes six to nine months. See Blaszczyk, B., and Dabrowski, M. (1993), “The Privatisation Process in Poland”, paper read at the conference “Privatisation of Large State Enterprises in the Russian Federation”, IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria, 9–11 July.
Slay, Ben (1993), “Poland: The role of managers in privatisation”, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Report, 19 March.
Keren, M. (1993), “A Dynamic-Evolutionary Perspective on Transformation”. paper read at the conference “Bottom-up Transformation in Eastern Europe”, Freiburg, 9–11 September.
For the source of data on voucher privatisation see: Mejstrik, M. (1993), “A rapid enterprise privatisation as a vital part of Czech transformation”, paper presented at the conference “Privatisation of Large State Enterprises in the Russian Federation”, IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria, 9–11 July.
National Statistical Institute (1993), Current Economic Business, Sofia, June.
For details see Grosser, I. (1992), “Bulgaria: Recent legal developments of interest to foreign investors”, WIIW Members’ Information Bulletin, no. 7.
Gradev, T. (1993), “Bulgaria: Slow pace of privatisation discredits reform process”, WIIW Members’ Information Bulletin, no. 7.
Keren, M. (1993), “A dynamic-evolutionary perspective on transformation”, paper presented at the conference “Bottom-up Transformation in Eastern Europe”, Freiburg, Germany, 9–11 September;
Swaan, W., and Lissowska, M. (1992), “Enterprise behaviour in Hungary and Poland in the transition to a market economy: routines as a barrier to change”, Tinbergen Institute Research Memorandum, The Hague, TI-1992/84.
Hunya, G. (1993), “Frictions …”, Op. cit.
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© 1995 Wiener Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsvergleiche (WIIW) (The Vienna Institute for Comparative Economic Studies)
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Hunya, G. (1995). A Progress Report on Privatisation in Eastern Europe. In: Saunders, C.T. (eds) Eastern Europe in Crisis and the Way Out. European Economic Interaction and Integration. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13642-1_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13642-1_12
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