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Kolodko, former finance minister of Poland, considers the links between issues of globalization and post-communist transition, the two most important economic features of the turn of the century. He discusses the pattern of economic growth and contraction of the past fifty years, and reviews the options for the next half century. He accounts for the severity of the transitional recession in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union as a result of both the legacies of the past and current policy mistakes, but demonstrates how structural reforms and gradual institutional building have enabled some postsocialist economies to recover. He proposes that, within the wider context of globalization, several of these emerging market economies will be able to catch up with the more advanced industrial countries, but emphasizes the need for quality growth policies and continuing coordination between development strategies and efforts toward structural reform. Grzegorz W. Kolodko is John C. Evans Professor in European Studies at the University of Rochester, and Director of TIGER -- Transformation, Integration and Globalization Economic Research -- at the Leon Kozminski Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management (WSPiZ).
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Globalization and Catching-Up in Transition Economies Grzegorz W. Kolodko Rochester Studies in Central Europe
Globalization and Catching-up in Transition Economies
Rochester Studies in Central Europe (ISSN 1528–4808)
Senior Editor: Ewa Hauser, Director, Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies, University of Rochester 1. Post-Communist Transition: The Thorny Road Grzegorz W. Kolodko 2. Globalization and Catching-up in Transition Economies Grzegorz W. Kolodko
Globalization and Catching-up in Transition Economies
Grzegorz W. Kolodko
University of Rochester Press
Copyright © 2002 Grzegorz W. Kolodko All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation, no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. First published 2002 University of Rochester Press 668 Mt. Hope Avenue Rochester, NY 14620 USA and at P.O. Box 9 Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF United Kingdom ISBN 1–58046–050–X ISSN 1071–9989 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Designed and typeset by Cornerstone Composition Services Printed in the United States of America This publication is printed on acid-free paper
Preface
Since the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, almost everyone agrees that the world has changed and never again will be the same. Definitely, there have been major changes since the attack on New York and Washington, and on the U. S. A. as such, but some things will remain the same. And that is so because the world had already changed before the atrocities of September 11 and the reactions to these events. The world has already changed in a remarkable way because of ongoing globalization and post-communist transformation. These two all important features of the turn of Twenty First century are discussed in this book, especially from the perspective of the Great Transition Depression, which—fortunately—is already in the past, and the fast long-term growth, which—hopefully—is still in the future. It is strange, but globalization and transformation are often not considered in the same context, or as two interrelated aspects of one bolder process. Yet they should be, because there is a clear feedback between these two phenomena. Aside from the internal forces and external mecha