IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/kondp2/298.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Trade liberalization during transition: A political economy perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Wunner, Norbert

Abstract

Most transitional economies in Central and Eastern Europe have rather surprisingly resisted protectionist pressures - at least during early stages of reform - and adopted liberal trade policies. In this paper the course of trade policy during transition is explained from a political economy perspective. It is shown that trade liberalization can be a rational strategy of reform politicians maximizing the probability of electoral success. In this context it is also discussed how trade policy affects the restructuring of state firms, i.e. their transformation into private firms. It is shown that less protection of the state sector does not necessarily enhance restructuring.

Suggested Citation

  • Wunner, Norbert, 1996. "Trade liberalization during transition: A political economy perspective," Discussion Papers, Series II 298, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:kondp2:298
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/101482/1/726322563.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. M. Dewatripont & G. Roland, 1992. "Economic Reform and Dynamic Political Constraints," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 59(4), pages 703-730.
    2. Gerard Roland, 1994. "The role of political constraints in transition strategies," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 2(1), pages 27-41, March.
    3. Philippe Aghion & Olivier Jean Blanchard, 1994. "On the Speed of Transition in Central Europe," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1994, Volume 9, pages 283-330, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Braillard, S. Lael & Verdier, Thierry, 1994. "Lobbying and adjustment in declining industries," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 586-595, April.
    5. Roland, Gerard, 1993. "The political economy of restructuring and privatization in Eastern Europe," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 533-540, April.
    6. Jagdish N. Bhagwati, 1982. "Import Competition and Response," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number bhag82-1.
    7. Wolfgang Mayer & Jun Li, 1994. "Interest Groups, Electoral Competition, And Probabilistic Voting For Trade Policies," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(1), pages 59-77, March.
    8. Wyplosz, Charles, 1993. "After the honeymoon: On the economics and the politics of economic transformation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 379-386, April.
    9. Michael Mussa, 1982. "Government Policy and the Adjustment Process," NBER Chapters, in: Import Competition and Response, pages 73-122, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Hillman, Arye L., 1994. "The transition from socialism: An overview from a political economy perspective," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 191-225, May.
    11. David Austen-Smith, 1987. "Interest groups, campaign contributions, and probabilistic voting," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 123-139, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. John S. Earle & Scott Gehlbach, 2003. "A Spoonful of Sugar: Privatization and Popular Support for Reform in the Czech Republic," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 1-32, March.
    2. Randolph Luca Bruno, 2003. "Speed of Transition, Unemployment Dynamics and Nonemployment Policies: Evidence from the Visegrad Countries," LEM Papers Series 2003/23, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    3. Kim, Byung-Yeon & Jukka Pirttila, 2003. "The Political Economy of Reforms: Empirical Evidence from Post-Communist Transition in the 1990s," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2003 120, Royal Economic Society.
    4. Kim, Byung-Yeon & Pirttila, Jukka, 2006. "Political constraints and economic reform: Empirical evidence from the post-communist transition in the 1990s," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 446-466, September.
    5. repec:zbw:bofitp:2003_004 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Gerard Rpland, 2001. "The Political Economy of Transition," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 413, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    7. Begovic, Boris & Paunovic, Marko, 2011. "Political support for enterprise restructuring and voting in Serbia," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 171-180, March.
    8. Everaert, Greetje M.M., 2004. "The political economy of restructuring and subsidisation: an international perspective," BOFIT Discussion Papers 12/2004, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    9. Byung-Yeon Kim & Jukka Pirttilä, 2003. "The political economy of reforms: Empirical evidence from post- communist transition in the 1990s," Macroeconomics 0304009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Bernardes, Luis G., 2003. "Reference-dependent preferences and the speed of economic liberalization," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 521-548, November.
    11. Cesar Martinelli, 2001. "Essays on Political Economy of Political Reform," Levine's Working Paper Archive 625018000000000135, David K. Levine.
    12. Matija Rojec & Janez Sustersic & Bostjan Vasle & Marijana Bednas & Slavica Jurancic, 2004. "The rise and decline of gradualism in Slovenia," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 459-482.
    13. Hillman, Arye L. & Ursprung, Heinrich W., 1996. "The political economy of trade liberalization in the transition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 783-794, April.
    14. Francesco Caselli & Nicola Gennaioli, 2008. "Economics and Politics of Alternative Institutional Reforms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(3), pages 1197-1250.
    15. Epstein, Gil S., 2000. "Personal productivity and the likelihood of electoral success of political candidates," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 95-111, March.
    16. Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson, 2013. "Economics versus Politics: Pitfalls of Policy Advice," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(2), pages 173-192, Spring.
    17. Helpman, Elhanan, 1995. "Politics and Trade Policy," Foerder Institute for Economic Research Working Papers 275606, Tel-Aviv University > Foerder Institute for Economic Research.
    18. Cecilia Testa, 2005. "Reforms, lobbies and welfare: A common agency approach," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 125(3), pages 305-337, December.
    19. repec:lic:licosd:13203 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Bertocchi, Graziella & Spagat, Michael, 1997. "Structural uncertainty and subsidy removal for economies in transition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 1709-1733, December.
    21. Boeri, Tito & Macis, Mario, 2008. "Do Unemployment Benefits Promote or Hinder Structural Change?," IZA Discussion Papers 3371, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    22. Miroslav Beblav�, 2011. "Why has the crisis been bad for private pensions, but good for the flat tax? The sustainability of �neoliberal� reforms in the new EU member states," CEPS Papers 6313, Centre for European Policy Studies.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade Policy; Transition; Probabilistic Voting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • P21 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Planning, Coordination, and Reform

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:zbw:kondp2:298. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fwkonde.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.