HUMAN DEVELOPMENT PERFORMANCE OF TRANSITION ECONOMIES IN THE POST-COLD WAR PERIOD

Abstract

The present study attempts to assess human development performance of the transition economies by dividing the countries into two major categories as Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to identify the necessary means for achieving higher levels of development. For this aim, a comparative descriptive analysis is used. The analysis period covers the last two decades. According to the main finding of the paper, human development performance of the transition economies is not disappointing at the aggregate level. In particular, CEEC performed quite well during the transition period. In comparison with CEEC, Human Development Index values of CIS remained at relatively low levels. However, when the developing countries are concerned, human development performance of CIS is promising in relation to their per capita income levels. The main factors of human development favor women rather than men in transition economies except income. Furthermore, an improvement is observed towards the eradication of human poverty and maintaining of the equal distribution of income in the case of transition economies. This is particularly true for CEEC.