Equity and Institutional Issues in Economies in Transition

这个研究项目是由教育部资助的前两个研究项目的自然延续。它借鉴了我们对亚洲和拉丁美洲发展经验的理解，以及有助于解释这些地区新政策的不断变化的国际环境。我们将分析扩展到中欧，填补了以往研究的一个重要空白，对经济发展的比较分析作出了重要贡献。虽然这三个地区有重要的差异，但研究的一个主要发现是，许多现行政策可以解释为对全球化挑战的回应。就拉丁美洲而言，该区域一直在调整和制订“新自由主义”政策，这些政策虽然有助于其经济的现代化，但对公平和其他社会指标产生了负面影响。东亚国家在这方面的政策倾向没有那么极端，因此社会影响也较小。中欧国家发现自己在这方面更接近拉丁美洲的情况。该研究的另一个重要发现是在过渡时期之前的“初始条件”的重要性。这有助于解释东亚和拉丁美洲国家之间的表现差异，后者受到那里存在的重大不平等的影响。对中欧国家来说，重要的初始条件是由于它们缺乏管理专门知识，一般来说是由于许多经济和社会方面仍然由它们的社会主义过去所决定。除了上述主要发现外，该研究还关注了竞争力的作用、公私治理、中小企业的发展、金融改革和社会保障体系等重要问题。

This research project has been a natural continuation of research undertaken in two previous projects funded by the Ministry on Education. It draws on our understanding of the development experience of Asia and Latin America as well as of the evolving international environment that helps explain new policies in these regions. The extension of our analysis to Central Europe has filled an important gap of previous studies and represents an important contribution to the comparative analysis of economic development. Although the three regions have important differences, one of the major findings of the research is that many current policies can be explained as a response to the challenges of globalization. In the case of Latin America, the region has been in the process of adaptation and elaboration of "neo-liberal" policies which, though contributing to the modernization or their economies, has had negative effects on equity and other social indicators. East Asian countries have been less extreme in their tilt towards this kind on policies and the social effects have consequently smaller. Central European countries find themselves in this regard closer to the situation on Latin America. Another important finding of the research is the importance of the "initial conditions" that predate the period on transition. This helps explain the difference of performance between East Asian and Latin American countries, the latter being burdened by the important inequalities that have existed there. For Central European countries important initial conditions arise from their lack on managerial expertise and generally from the many economic and social aspects that are still defined by their socialist past. In addition to the major findings indicated, the research also gave attention to important issues such as the role of competitiveness, public and private governance, development of SMEs, financial reform, and the social security system.