Measuring Progress in Transition

Abstract

There is a broad consensus amongst experts that Central Europe and the Baltics have progressed much further towards a market economy than have countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS); and that of the latter, Belarus, Turkmenistan and, arguably, Uzbekistan have not changed much. Such a view is also widely held by the citizens of these countries. While such broad judgments are probably correct, for analytical purposes it is surely better to have a more rigorous, objective measure of transition progress. Unfortunately, there can be no single measure of a country’s progress along this path since transformation from a centrally-planned economy with state ownership to a market economy with private ownership involves more than changes in economic arrangements, and encompasses political, social and — as is increasingly recognized — institutional changes.