Transforming The Core

Large state industry, the "hard core" of the communist economic system, has been the principal obstacle in the transition to a market economy. Even in countries that have freed prices, opened up their economies to foreign trade and investment, and fostered private enterprise, much of the heavy industry has remained state-controlled, overstaffed and obsolete. Providing integrated assessments as well as detailed country studies, this work provides a comparative analysis of the strategies employed by Russia, China, Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic to deal with the transformation of industrial enterprises. The authors assess policies such as the sale of firms to insiders and outsiders, voucher privatization, debt relief, restructuring and bankruptcy - all in the context of overall economic transition.