Economic reforms in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union /

Most of the remarkably current articles in this collection are by researchers at the Vienna Institute for Comparative Economic Studies, but two are by economists from Poland, whose economic reforms receive the most attention. Part 1 examines basic concepts and discusses the barriers to and conditions for effective reform. Part 2 consists of country studies of the USSR, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. In Hungary, reforms were initiated from above and supported from below; the reverse was true in Poland, and questions remain about support from above. The analysis of the deficiencies of the Polish reforms after martial law is most penetrating. Part 3 surveys special areas of reform, such as changes in the banking and foreign trade systems of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance countries. This first volume in a series by the Vienna Institute sets a high standard. Chapter notes; no index. Compare with Reorganization and Reform in the Soviet Economy, ed. by Susan Linz and William Moskoff (CH, Dec '88). Upper-division and graduate collections. -B. B. Brown, Jr., Southern Oregon State College