ABSTRACT
We begin this chapter with an account of the performance of former socialist countries during the transition era. The indicators reported here to measure performance are output and price changes (that is, economic growth and inflation rates), unemployment rates and life expectancy at birth rates. We then proceed to examine the output collapse of the 1990s and report on the various theoretical explanations put forward, ex post, to explain the fall in output. We conclude the chapter by reporting on the cross-country variation in economic performance (as measured by economic growth) and present the results of the empirical research on the determinants of economic performance in transition countries. As with variations in enterprise performance, various factors explain cross-country growth and performance differences, and these will be explained in detail in this final section.
