ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

This edition expands on previous material analyzing China and other countries thatweresocialistduringmostofthepost–WorldWarIIperiod.Themajorupheaval in the field since early 1989 has been the collapse of state socialism in East-Central EuropeandtheformerSovietUnionandeconomists’downwardrevisionofestimates of their average economic welfare. Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, postsocialist European countries, like other low- and middle-income countries, have undertakenstructuraladjustmentandmarketreforms,generallyunderIMForWorldBank auspices. Yet a substantial proportion of these liberalizing post socialist economies have still not attained their pre-1989 peak in economic welfare. This edition reflects this reality by increasing examples from such countries as Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Czech Republic, and other transitional economies, and by drawing lessons from their adjustment, stabilization, and liberalization for other middle-income and low-income countries