Post-Communist Economies

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Post-Communist Economies is the new title for Communist Economies and Economic Transformation (originally just Communist Economies). After ten years of publication the title has been changed because of a growing feeling that the major processes into which transformation has generally been divided - stablisation, liberalisation and privatisation - have in substantial measure been completed in most of the former communist countries, even though this is more true of some than others, and all still have some distance to go to match the long-established market economies in these respects. Yet despite the dramatic changes that have taken place in the past decade, the post-communist economies still form a clearly identifiable group, distinguished by the impact of the years of communist rule, and this looks set to remain true for many more years. This is the reason for the choice of the new title now: post-communist economies still present distinctive problems which make them a particular focus of research. There is need for further stabilisation, liberalisation and privatisation in spite of the progress that has been made. And there is the fundamental problem that efficiency, productivity and thus incomes in all these countries are extremely low. More attention needs to be devoted to the microeconomic aspects of the post-communists countries efforts to catch up with the much richer countries of the European Union many of them aim to join in the opening years of the new millenium. The focus may thus have moved on from the basic transformation but the post-communist economies particular problems will continue to be an important area of economic and political analysis and Post-Communist Economies will contribute to this analysis by publishing the key research and policy articles in the field.