Building institutions for growth and human developement : an economic perspective applied to transitional countries of Europe and CIS

Abstract

The collapse of the communist system during the late 1980’s redefined the hierarchy among Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) and the former USSR. Some of these countries joined the EU ; some did not ; others formed the CIS . In particular, institutions, mainly market and political one, appear to be a strong foundation for a rapid but irreversible shift from socialism to market-oriented economy. The relationship between economic performance and the quality of domestic institutions has emerged recently as a major subject of interest. The literature shows that the higher the quality of domestic institutions the better the effects on the Human development and growth of a country. The aim of this paper is to analyse in a more qualitative way the role of institutions in transitional countries in the CEECs and CIS. The main question we address is: what kind of institutional arrangement leads to Human development? We propose an analytical pattern where global performance (i.e. Human development) is the final outcome of a new institutional arrangement.