Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The aim of the research was to further understanding of the fundamental determinants of economic reform in the Central and Eastern European and former Soviet Union transition countries. The project was motivated by the following set of questions: What were the determinants of both overall and more specific reform efforts? What were the nature and role of the different specific reforms? What was the relationship between the various specific reforms? Which reform elements were complements and which were substitutes? More specifically, the proposed research had two objectives. One was to construct an extensively-documented panel dataset (covering 25 transition countries from 1989 to 2001) and the second was to use these data to shed light on the role of reform as a determinant of economic performance in the transitional countries. The project aimed to provide objective indicators of economic reform for transition economies. The data would be used to quantify and explain the causal relations and mutual interactions between initial conditions, reform choices and various dimensions of economic performance in the specific conditions of transition from central planning and communism to market economy and democracy.


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The dataset includes three types of index: an 'Internal Liberalization Index', an 'External Liberation Index' and a 'Privatization Index', each covering 25 countries.