Centrally-planned Economies Research Articles

How economic policies and development impact marine fisheries: Lessons learned from a transitional economy

This article examines the impact of economic growth on Vietnam’s marine fisheries and the effectiveness of government policies in promoting sustainability. Despite impressive economic growth, environmental concerns have become urgent and require serious consideration in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government has implemented policies to reduce over-exploitation in coastal areas and improve the efficiency of offshore fishing, but unsustainable practices and illegal fishing remain significant problems. This study examines the effects of transitioning from a centrally-planned economy to a ‘socialist-oriented’ market economy on the productivity and efficiency of Vietnam’s marine fisheries. The main focus is on productivity changes, with additional consideration given to technical progress, environmental changes, and management practices. The findings shed light on the complex relationships between economic development, environmental sustainability, and marine fisheries in Vietnam. The study highlights the importance of sustainable practices and effective government policies in promoting the sustainability of the country’s marine fisheries. This article provides valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders concerned with the sustainability of marine resources in Vietnam and beyond.

The urban local centre: from the centrally-planned economy to the capitalist city. The experience of the Ursynów district in Warsaw

The polycentric structure of the city reflects the role of various stakeholders, public and private, in shaping the urban development and life quality. The paper investigates the role of the public and private sector in creation of the local centres in neighbourhoods, hubs concentrating the services and amenities indispensable for modern life. The analysis is based on the case study of the Ursynów district in Warsaw, designed and constructed mainly in the 1980s, but with several infrastructural, housing, and commercial investments realised after 1989. The study encompassed the location of local centres, their functions, and spatial forms. The findings demonstrate that both public and private sectors play intertwined and significant roles for the local centres and create a synergy effect in such areas. The results of the study also show the evolutionary nature of the local centres’ development. The main elements of the design persist, but the market-oriented economy and decentralised democratic institutions allowed them to continue the original plans, while making the local centres more attractive and richer function-wise than it was possible during the centrally-planned period.

Problem zamówień publicznych w PRL

The article characterises selected legal solutions applied in the process of public contract award in the realities of the nationalised centrally-planned economy in the times of the Polish People’s Republic. In the study, manifestations of discrimination of private businesses in the access to public contracts are presented. Such discrimination was one of the foundations for the legislation applicable at the time. The article also highlights other features of legal acts of statutory rank governing contracts awarded by state-owned organisational units, such as the fragmented nature of their regulations, including the omission of regulations governing the procedure of reaching an agreement and executing a contract. This allowed formulating conclusions about the merely superficial role of the provisions on supplies, services, and works for state entities and the fundamental inability of these regulations to play the role attributed to public procurement in the market economy, consisting in deploying the mechanism of competition between entrepreneurs for cost-efficiencies in public spending.

On Financial Bubbles and Earthworms: Lessons from Hungary’s Rural Pyramid during its Economic Transition

Abstract In the early 1990s, Former Eastern Bloc countries, including Hungary, experienced a broad transition from centrally-planned economies, managed by party-state bureaucracies, to privatised economies. Throughout the market liberalisation process, the Hungarian market embraced entrepreneurship as a mechanism for generating both private wealth and economic growth, despite a lack of experience and know-how in business management and financial education, made largely unavailable by the communist regime for more than 40 years. On these grounds, several Eastern European countries experienced the rise of Ponzi schemes. The Hungarian earthworm pyramid can serve as an interesting example of the financial pyramids that evolved during the transition of economies. However, some of the characteristics of the Hungarian earthworm pyramid suggest that it was a rather unique case when compared to other Eastern European pyramids during the economic transition period of post-communist nations. Our study concludes that, under different political and economic circumstances, the Hungarian bio-humus production by earthworms could potentially become a profitable venture, rather than a source for financial and societal damages.

A socialist justification of the market

ABSTRACT A wide use of markets is indispensable for a viable socialist economy. Yet, many considered market socialism a normatively compromised form of socialism. Some argue that the use of markets can only be justified by non-socialist values. This article argues that a wide use of markets in the spheres of commodities and finance can be justified by principled socialist reasons. It first recasts the central ideal of socialism as to promote people’s self-realization in productive work. Then it argues that people should freely produce for others’ genuine needs in order to satisfy this ideal. It is then shown that an egalitarian market economy, where citizens have relatively equal income and where extensive provision of public goods that contribute to developing people’s capability is available, better provides for people’s diverse and changing needs than a central-planning economy. Thus, it concludes, there is a socialist justification of the market.

Management of construction prices in vietnam under market orientation In the period of international integration

Different from countries with long-standing market economies, Vietnam and the Russian Federation are both transitioning from a centrally-planned economy to a market economy, so the determination of the state role in construction price management is particularly important. In Vietnam, the system of construction cost norms, issued by Vietnamese government applied throughout the country, is obsolete and does not keep pace with the development of construction technologies, leaving a huge gap in practice.In developed countries, the collection and establishment of construction price data are based on detailed unit prices finished construction contracts, official published national statistics, and annual reports from professional associations and businesses.This paper surveys literature review on the topic of construction price management and analyses, current situation and construction price formation in Vietnam which contributes to innovating the way of forming and managing construction prices in the direction of market and international integration.

The Nexus between External Debts and Military Expenditures for the Selected Transition Economies: A Panel Threshold Regression Approach

ABSTRACT The dissolution of the Eastern Bloc at the end of the Cold War compelled most of the centrally-planned economies to adjust their economic order to become free market economies. During the transition process, most of those countries experienced severe external debt overhang problems, due to excessive budget deficits and rapid liberalization of foreign trade and capital account regimes. In addition, most of those countries were facing political unrest due to internal and external conflicts by the end of the Cold War, with rampant weapons proliferation and the arms race. By employing the fixed effect panel threshold regression approach, we unveil the non-linear relationship between military spending and external indebtedness, which has not been examined for the selected twelve transition economies over the period from 1997 to 2016. Our findings reveal the presence of double threshold effects that are embedded in military expenditure, and the debt-accelerating effect of military spending emerges after the first regime. In the early stages, countries tend to finance military expenditure with the help of domestic savings, whereas the requirement for external borrowing emerges later as domestic savings become inadequate. We have also produced some crucial policy recommendations to reflect our findings.

The Mystery of Growth Mechanism in a Centrally Planned Economy: Planning Process and Economics of Shortages

Since the economic calculation debate of the 1920-30s, it is known that it is impossible to create a coherent balanced plan that equates supply and demand of millions of goods and services in the national economy, not to speak about the optimal plan. It is not well understood, though, how the centrally planned economy (CPE) really functioned and what were the real determinants of their growth rates, if not the planned indicators. It was shown that forecasts of growth rates based on the extrapolation of past trends were better correlated with actual performance than planned indicators, but it is still unclear what was the real mechanism of growth of CPE and what was the role of the planning process in it. The hypothesis in this paper is that the drivers of growth in the CPE were the major investment projects initiated by the planners. They led to shortages of supplies, which triggered creeping price increases for scarce goods, which in turn boosted profitability in respective industries allowing them to increase output. De facto it was a market economy multiplier process – fiscal and monetary expansion leading to the price and output increases that eventually balanced supply and demand.

Multicriterion Typology of Agriculture: A Spatial Dependence Approach

Abstract At the turn of the 21st century Polish agriculture intensively changed as the consequence of: 1) the socio-economic transformation that started in 1989, 2) the general transition from a centrally-planned economy to a market economy and 3) Poland’s accession in 2004 to the European Union. In this paper, we try to describe, in a synthetic way, the spatial heterogeneity of development of agriculture in Poland. For this purpose we identified the types of contemporary Polish agriculture. We applied the measures of global (Moran 1950) and local (LISA) spatial autocorrelation devised by L. Anselin (1995) and used their calculations in classification methods. Our dataset consists of 69 variables and 3,069 spatial units at the LAU2 level. As the result of the analysis we identified 20 types of agriculture in Poland and presented their characteristic features. We have paid particular attention to a spatial distribution of identified types. We concluded that the distribution is not only a result of natural or socio-economic conditions and local spatial relationships, but also to a greater extent is still affected by historical conditions (mainly partitions and changes of borders after the First and Second World Wars).

Role of Unemployment insurance in Sustainable development in Vietnam: Overview and policy implication

Unemployment insurance is one of the social policies that have received much attention from economists in many countries over the past decades. Since 1986, the Vietnamese economy was shifted from the centrally-planned economy to a market one leading to a very fast development of the labor market. Having a young population structure, so the unemployment problem and unemployment insurance policy had considered and recognized as the important social issues in this country. In Vietnam, the unemployment insurance policy is an important part of the Social Insurance Law, promulgated in 2008. Our paper aims to analyze the role of unemployment insurance in Vietnam since this policy officially began in 2009. The Vietnamese government has some targets in the formation of the unemployment insurance fund is the maintenance of regular compulsory contributions of parties to labor relations in combination with public budget supports, focusing on creating a stable financial funding for unemployment insurance regime in the long run. Our regression results using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method and the analysis descriptive statistics show that the unemployment insurance policy has a positive effect on reducing faster and stabilizer the unemployment rate of the Vietnamese economy (this policy have reduced the average unemployment rate by 0.66% per year since 2009). Furthermore, the unemployment insurance policy not only helps the unemployed people stabilize their lives but also provides more opportunities for them to faster continue participating in the labor market by many benefits including free counseling services, free employment placement services, free training services for unemployed people in Vietnam. The success of the unemployment insurance policy has been noted in reducing the number of labor strikes by softening the relationship between employers and their workers in Vietnam. Besides, the unemployment insurance policy will help reduce the fluctuations of the economic cycles automatically by increasing the aggregate demand by multiplier mechanic and contributes to support the economic growth in Vietnam in the period 2008-2010. We can conclude the benefits of unemployment insurance help the development of Vietnamese society towards sustainability in the long run. Finally, the article also suggested some policy implications for the policymakers to have a better control the unemployment as well as stabilize the labor market in Vietnam in the future.

To Grunge or Not to Grunge on the Periphery? The Polish Grunge Scene of the 1990s and the Assimilation of Cultural Patterns

To Grunge or Not to Grunge on the Periphery? The Polish Grunge Scene of the 1990s and the Assimilation of Cultural Patterns

Cold War Legacy in Public and Private Health Spending in Europe.

Cold War Era (1946–1991) was marked by the presence of two distinctively different economic systems, namely the free-market (The Western ones) and central-planned (The Eastern ones) economies. The main goal of this study refers to the exploration of development pathways of Public and Private Health Expenditure in all of the countries of the European WHO Region. Based on the availability of fully comparable data from the National Health Accounts system, we adopted the 1995–2014 time horizon. All countries were divided into two groups: those defined in 1989 as free market economies and those defined as centrally-planned economies. We observed six major health expenditures: Total Health Expenditure (% of GDP), Total Health Expenditure (PPP unit), General government expenditure on health (PPP), Private expenditure on health (PPP), Social security funds (PPP) and Out-of-pocket expenditure (PPP). All of the numerical values used refer exclusively to per capita health spending. In a time-window from the middle of the 1990s towards recent years, total health expenditure was rising fast in both groups of countries. Expenditure on health % of GDP in both group of countries increased over time with the increase in the Free-market economies seen to be more rapid. The steeper level of total expenditure on health for the Free-market as of 1989 market economies, is due mainly to a steep increase in both the government and private expenditure on health relative to spending by centrally-planned economies as of the same date, with the out-of-pocket expenditure and the social security funds in the same market economies category following the same steepness. Variety of governments were leading Eastern European countries into their transitional health care reforms. We may confirm clear presence of obvious divergent upward trends in total governmental and private health expenditures between these two groups of countries over the past two decades. The degree of challenge to the fiscal sustainability of these health systems will have to be judged for each single nation, in line with its own local circumstances and perspectives.

Central European states from a conservative perspective in the period 1990–2004

CENTRAL EUROPEAN STATES FROM A CONSERVATIVE PERSPECTIVE IN THE PERIOD 1990–2004The post-communist transition of Central European States the V4 countries and their neighbours, when speaking about a broader Central Europe took place in the last decade of the 20th century until the years 2002 and 2004, when the V4 countries were allowed to access the EU and NATO. In this case, the term transition accounts for changes in the political status of states, a transi­tion period in which basic pillars of the state — political system, the market economy, replaced the centrally-planned economy, the security and agenda of human rights, were assessed by new criteria. It was a complicated process that had to be reflected from the perspective of science and research, but also it had to be accepted from the perspective of citizens who did not always perceive the changes in a positive way. Central Europe lacked public discussion, a space that was supposed to be dedicated to the supporters of integration, but also to opposing opinions in order to make transparent attitudes, objections, but mainly, to introduce comprehensible projects of further development. To­day many theoreticians from Western Europe view the absence of public discussion to be a serious lack of planning in the preparation period. Mainly future positive benefits were presented, liberalism as the best solution of economic problems was unilaterally preferred. Little attention was given to possible impacts of the other ideological or theoretical concepts, e.g., conservatism, which puts an emphasis on the important role of the state, traditions, paternalism, and other aspects, which could, at first sight, operate as controlling mechanisms, even barriers to liberalism and integration. At that time, conservatism seemed to be an outdated ideology. But in practice, the situation was different. Conservative parties, and particularly the conservative perspective of reality, became an essential way of problem solving. The article aspires to explain some aspects of the impact of conservatism on the positive process of transition and transformation in Central Europe.

ON THE THRESHOLD OF “ADULTHOOD”: WESTERN BALKANS’ TRANSITION FAILURES

After the beginning of the transformation of centrally-planned economies into market economies, the implementation of a transition project in the case of new EU members (a total of 10 countries joined through the enlargements of 2004 and 2007) lasted for almost two decades, far longer than the pessimistic forecasters announced. By contrast, the Western Balkan countries (in total 6 of them), with the exception of Croatia (EU member since 2013.), have neither continuity nor adequate success in carrying out the reform processes. That is why their transition still has an uncertain outcome and an unpredictable duration. In order to determine to which stages the less developed countries have arrived at the moment when those more advanced have almost finished their transition, we will use the EBRD indicators. We will then explain the phases of Western Balkans transition dynamics (first wave reforms and deeper reforms) in order to show that these economies have partially followed the pattern reccommended by advanced economies, leaving the segment of deeper reforms unfinished. Finally, relying on the new model for measuring transitional progress (which the EBRD has been using since 2011), we will try to evaluate which part of the predicted trajectory Western Balkans really crossed on their path to transitional “adulthood”.

Socialist Market Economy Principles as a Neo-Marxist Policy

Marx has two theories: surplus value and labor value. Marx defends positivist socialism. Hegel impressed Marx ideas during his PhD. This study is based on Marx opinions. Socialist Market Economy has two principles: central planning and market economy. State implements central planning for investments, and firms operate their marketing and production activities. In socialist economy, state decides firm’s marketing and production activities. That policy may decrease effectiveness in national economy.

Analysis of the Banking Sector Performance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia Before and After the Global Financial Crisis

SummaryThe focus of this study is the banking sector of the three neighbouring countries Bosnia and Herzegovina; Montenegro; and Serbia. These are former communist countries which have been going through the transition from centrally-planned economies to open market economies over the past 25 years. During the transition process, structural reforms were conducted to transform the banking sector into a sector suitable for open market economy. These reforms are considered to be the most successful ones in the region. Before the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09, the economies of the three selected countries were experiencing credit booms. The aim of this research was to examine how the banking sector is performing on an aggregated level years after the crisis and whether the performance is better or worse compared to the pre-crisis period. The findings show that the banking sector was performing better before the crisis in all three countries. After the crisis, the three countries experienced prolonged slow credit growth and had higher nonperforming loans.

R&D in a post centrally-planned economy: The macroeconomic effects in Poland

Half a century of centrally planned policy in the Central and Eastern European countries resulted in outdated technologies, inefficient allocation of resources and low productivity. Following the end of communism there was a fifteen year process of transition which ended in 2004 with eight post-communist countries joining the European Union (EU) of which Poland was the largest. As part of the EU these countries now face the challenge of the common EU strategy Europe 2020, which has set the target of achieving R&D expenditure to GDP ratio (called the R&D intensity) of 3% by 2020 for the Union as a whole in an effort to increase the competitiveness of the region. Poland, like the other post-communist countries, faces a lower target of R&D intensity, set at 1.7%. Nevertheless, the challenge is immense, since the country is still at only half that level and has little experience in developing policies to help achieve it. In this paper we tested two possible policy options to achieve the target: (1) to increase government expenditures on R&D and; (2) to provide tax relief on R&D to businesses. The method applied to assess the options is a recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model for Poland with an explicit link between productivity and R&D stock. The results show that achieving the R&D intensity target via the use of tax relief is 2.5 times more costly to the government budget, but it has a greater impact on the economy in terms of a higher GDP growth. Tax relief proved efficient in the short run while in the long run the government expenditure policy provides better value for money.

Národohospodářská analýza zemědělských a církevních restitucí v ČR

Democratically set ownership rights are the basic premise for a fully functioning liberal market economy. The restitution processes in the Czech Republic should have played an important role in rectifying the abuse of ownership rights during the period of the centrally-planned economy. Unfortunately, the asymmetries of the church restitutions, as the last process which should have been part of the rectification, i.e. the restoration of democratic ownership rights in the Czech Republic, became the catalyst for new injustices and grievances in relation to ordinary entitled persons to whom other restitution laws also applied. In light of the above, this article contains an analysis of the restitutions of agricultural and forest assets and an analysis of church restitutions. The results of these analyses are compared in order to confirm the hypothesis that church restitutions were given preference over ordinary entitled persons. The conclusion to the article shows this to be fully in accordance with basic economic theories.

Analysis of the Banking Sector Performance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia Before and after the Global Financial Crisis

The focus of this study is the banking sector of the three neighbouring countries Bosnia and Herzegovina; Montenegro; and Serbia. These are former communist countries which have been going through the transition from centrally-planned economies to open market economies over the past 25 years. During the transition process, structural reforms were conducted to transform the banking sector into a sector suitable for open market economy. These reforms are considered to be the most successful ones in the region. Before the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09, the economies of the three selected countries were experiencing credit booms. The aim of this research was to examine how the banking sector is performing on an aggregated level years after the crisis and whether the performance is better or worse compared to the pre-crisis period. The findings show that the banking sector was performing better before the crisis in all three countries. After the crisis, the three countries experienced prolonged slow credit growth and had higher non-performing loans.

Russia, State Capitalism and Arctic Degradation

Abstract The leaders of the USSR actively pursued Arctic exploration, settlement and resource exploitation. Working with scientists, engineers, settlers and local people, and using gulag labourers, they created the most urban Arctic environment in the world that focused on extractive industries – oil, gas, nickel, platinum, coal and others. Owing to a centrally-planned economy, forced settlement and unwavering determination to harness resources, they faced the constant threat of industrial accidents and pollution-borne illnesses; epidemiological surveys reveal significant life expectancy and infant mortality impacts. The break-up of the USSR left Arctic regions without the extensive subsidies of the Soviet era. But under Vladimir Putin, Russia has again determined to force Arctic development in support of state power. This essay will examine continuity and change in the efforts of Russian leaders from Stalin to Putin to develop rich Arctic resources and establish urban settlements and military bases across the Arctic Circle. It will consider the human and environmental costs of the state-sponsored effort, as well as fledgling efforts at remediation of persistent pollution and social problems.