Heterodox Transition, Income Inequality and Poverty in Central Asia: the case of Uzbekistan

While the heterodox approach to the transition followed by Uzbekistan has often been critcized, the results it achieved in containing the transitional recession and restarting growth appear to have been superior to those obtained by other Central Asian Republics which followed a more liberal approach. In this sense, the Uzbek approach can be defined as the best second best given the adverse cirtcumstances under which the transition took place. In contrast, the development model inspired by the import substituting industrialisation followed since 1996 has produced less satisfactory results, mainly owing to the negative distributive effects it produced and that have indirectly retarded both growth and poverty reduction.