IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/876.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Old debts and new beginnings : a policy choice in transitional socialist economies

Author

Listed:
  • Levine, Ross
  • Scott, David

Abstract

The authors examine the decisions policy-makers in transitional socialist economies must make: how to define the asset liability structure of state owned enterprises and banks as they are privatized. They conclude that the many loans issued by state-owned enterprises under socialism are impeding the transition tothriving market economies. The heavy stock of debts is slowing the privatization of enterprises and banks, hindering the efficient operation of firms and the financial sector, encouraging ad hoc government intervention, and reducing government credibility. The authors argue that governments should often assume enterprise debts to banks on a case-by-case basis so they can sell enterprises to the private sector. Application of this policy would improve efficiency by depoliticizing and speeding up the privatization process, improving the viability and profitability of newly privatized enterprises, increase government credibility, and improving the efficiency of the financial sector. They also explain that privatizing banks will tend to make financial intermediation more efficient and speed up the economic transition, governments should seriously consider assuming enterprise debts to state-owned banks as they privatize enterprises because of the ensuing great gains in efficiency and the relatively low fiscal costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Levine, Ross & Scott, David, 1992. "Old debts and new beginnings : a policy choice in transitional socialist economies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 876, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:876
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1992/03/01/000009265_3961002164716/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ronald I. McKinnon, 1991. "Financial Control in the Transition from Classical Socialism to a Market Economy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 107-122, Fall.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mitchell, Janet, 2001. "Bad Debts and the Cleaning of Banks' Balance Sheets: An Application to Transition Economies," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 1-27, January.
    2. Buch, Claudia M., 1994. "Dealing with bad debt: Lessons from Eastern Europe," Kiel Working Papers 642, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    3. Schmieding, Holger & Buch, Claudia, 1992. "Better banks for Eastern Europe," Kiel Discussion Papers 197, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    4. Emil-Maria Claassen, 1993. "Cleaning the balance sheets of commercial banks in Eastern Europe and their role in corporate governance," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 129(3), pages 600-609, September.
    5. Gerard Caprio, Jr., 1995. "The role of financial intermediaries in transitional economies," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 257-302, June.
    6. Koop, Michael J. & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 1994. "Die Transformationskrise in Mittel- und Osteuropa: Ursachen und Auswege," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 1590, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Petreski, Marjan, 2013. "Inflation targeting at the crossroads: Evidence from post-communist economies during the crisis," MPRA Paper 47018, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Turhan, Ibrahim M., 2008. "Why did it work this time: a comparative analysis of transformation of Turkish economy after 2002," MPRA Paper 31158, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Alexandru Minea & Patrick Villieu, 2006. "Long-Run Monetary and Fiscal Policy Trade-Off in an Endogenous Growth Model with Transaction Costs," Post-Print halshs-00261119, HAL.
    4. Noland, Marcus & Son, Hyun H., 2012. "Editors’ introduction transitional economies: Progress and pitfalls," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 107-110.
    5. Alexander Ballantyne & Jonathan Hambur & Ivan Roberts & Michelle Wright, 2014. "Financial Reform in Australia and China," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2014-10, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    6. Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Robert McNab, 1997. "Tax Reform in Transition Economies: Experiences and Lessons," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper9706, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    7. Minea, Alexandru & Villieu, Patrick, 2010. "Financial development, institutional quality and maximizing-growth trade-off in government finance," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 324-335, January.
    8. Hasan, Iftekhar & Marton, Katherin, 2003. "Development and efficiency of the banking sector in a transitional economy: Hungarian experience," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(12), pages 2249-2271, December.
    9. James Laurenceson & J. C. H. Chai, 2001. "State banks and economic development in China," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(2), pages 211-225.
    10. John Marangos, 2005. "A Political Economy Approach to the Neoclassical Gradualist Model of Transition," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 263-293, April.
    11. Francisco D. A. Nadal De Simone, 1995. "A Macroeconomic Perspective Of Afta'S Problems And Prospects," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 13(2), pages 49-62, April.
    12. Choy, James P., 2020. "Kompromat: A theory of blackmail as a system of governance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    13. Jawad Ahmad & Sania Zehraa & Noor Jehan, 2018. "Can Openness Hypothesis Improve Political Economy of Pakistans Financial Market?," Global Economics Review, Humanity Only, vol. 3(1), pages 56-65, June.
    14. McLure, Charles E., Jr., 1991. "A consumption-based direct tax for countries in transition from socialism," Policy Research Working Paper Series 751, The World Bank.
    15. Pastor, Manuel Jr & Zimbalist, Andrew, 1995. "Waiting for change: Adjustment and reform in Cuba," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 705-720, May.
    16. A. James Meigs, 1993. "Eurodollars: A Transition Currency," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 12(3), pages 711-730, Winter.
    17. Zhu, Chaowei & Zhang, Fan & Zhang, Yuling, 2023. "Revisiting financial opening and financial development: A regulation heterogeneity perspective," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 181-197.
    18. Dandume, Muhammad Yusuf & A.C., Dr.Malarvizhi, 2014. "Does Financial Liberalization, Spur Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction in Six Sub-Saharan African Countries; Panel Unit Root and Panel Vector Error Correction Tests," MPRA Paper 52349, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Aug 2013.
    19. Sasidaran Gopalan, 2015. "Financial Liberalization and Foreign Bank Entry in Emerging and Developing Economies: What Does the Literature Tell Us?," Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy (JICEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(02), pages 1-25.
    20. James A. Dorn, 1993. "Introduction: Monetary Reform in Ex-Communist Countries," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 12(3), pages 509-525, Winter.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:876. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.