call for publishing proposals...

from harwood academic publishers...

a new international Book Series...

ECONOMIES  IN  TRANSITION  TO  THE  MARKET

Edited by
Professor Josef P. Brada, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA
Professor Paul G. Hare, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

By the 1980s communism was in crisis all over the world, with lagging growth
rates and living standards falling further behind those of the more
developed market economies. Following the collapse of the communist system
throughout Central and Eastern Europe, and then the Soviet Union, transition
towards some form of market-type economy has been under way for nearly a
decade now. The process of transition, however, is not merely a matter of
changing the economic system in already established nation states, though
that would be difficult enough in many cases. For the collapse of the old
system has been accompanied by massive and still ongoing political change in
many countries. Only China has thus far proved an exception, with vigorous
economic reforms accompanied by little political change.
	
The fluidity of the political structures, of course, has a significant
bearing on the economic transition in several countries. The most obvious
point is that countries at war are not typically introducing economic
reforms and in several cases are experiencing serious economic collapse.
Post-war, recovery can be amazingly quick (as in Bosnia in the past two
years), but the economic reform agenda still has to be addressed once the
political conditions have stabilized sufficiently. More generally, countries
perceived to be politically unstable, even though not at war, often find it
hard to attract either adequate aid or significant foreign investment, and
this can then slow down even those reforms they are able to put through.
	
For the more stable countries of the region the economic transition is
perceived to have a number of components which, for brevity, are merely
listed here: macroeconomic stabilization, price and trade liberalization,
privatization and enterprise restructuring, banking and financial market
reform, reform of the labor market and social safety net, reform of the
public finances (both expenditure and taxation), institutional reforms in
many areas of economic life.

In addition, at least for the larger countries, one has to add a regional
dimension to economic policy, including in relation to fiscal arrangements.
And for more advanced transition countries there are additional important
policy issues associated with the EU enlargement process. Last, there are
some important  problems that arise from the communist inheritance, and
which suddenly gain prominence when some of the reforms listed above start
to be implemented. Examples of this type of problem would include energy
policy (where nominally good policies were not enforced, and where meeting
EU standards could be prohibitively expensive), housing policy (where rents
were very low, maintenance seriously neglected, and a housing market barely
exists), social policy (where the services were delivered through
enterprises rather than through local authorities), etc.
	
In all of these areas we have learnt a great deal in the past decade. In
some instances it is clear that earlier views about policy priorities were
simply wrong and we have had to rethink how to manage the given domain. For
instance, building a private sector is no longer seen as a reason for quick
privatization of state-owned firms. Instead, encouraging new businesses is
at least as vital. Further, we understand much better than we did the
importance of institutional reforms. Thus supporting privatization with
measures to harden enterprise budget constraints, such as a tough bankruptcy
law, is increasingly viewed as essential to ensure the needed improvements
in enterprise behavior.
	
Hence the time is now ripe to put together what has been learnt - both
conceptually and empirically - into a number of volumes that will be useful
to the academic community, students, policy-makers, and others seeking a
more developed understanding and analysis of the economic and political
processes of transition. This is the purpose of the present series.

The editors of Economies in Transition to the Market invite proposals for
monographs, textbooks and cohesive edited collections. Proposers are
encouraged to introduce their idea to the editors of the series before
assembling a full publishing proposal. Publishing proposals should include a
full chapter outline of the book and some draft material, abstracts and
sample articles in the case of edited collections (with full details of
titles and affiliations of contributors), and an introduction and argument
for the project. Proposals must be accompanied by the full c.v./s of the
author/s or collection editor/s.


to discuss a proposal please contact, in the first instance...

Gerard Greenway
Commissioning Editor, Social Sciences
[log in to unmask]
Tel: +44 (0)118 952 0314 (direct line)


forthcoming...

Volume 1: Unemployment in Transition: Restructuring and Labour Markets in
Central Europe
Janice Bell and Tomasz Mickiewicz. September 2000.


harwood academic publishers
A member of The Gordon and Breach Publishing Group
http://www.gbhap.com




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