Economic Transition Phase II: Private Sector Development

This paper studies private sector development in transition economies. To address this issue, many economist have focused on the issue of privatization, assuming that privatization is a proxy for private sector development. But as the experience of countries such as Poland has revealed, privatization, though important, is only part of the story. This paper takes a more comprehensive approach and considers the development of the private sector as the nexus of a policy agenda establishing a solid legal and institutional framework and promotes both privatization and the growth of capital markets. Though the analysis focuses on a handful of countries, the main conclusions are applicable to other countries in transition.