Ordnungspolitische Weichenstellungen für eine marktwirtschaftliche Entwicklung in mittel- und osteuropäischen Reformländern

Klaus Schrader analyzes the institutional reforms and structural changes in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and the Slovak Republic. These countries are among the reform countries which made the most progress. As an analytical tool the author uses a catalogue of criteria based on the essential elements of a liberal market economy. These criteria are: the legal basis and the rule of law, the state of private property, competition rules and liberty of the markets, economic openness and macroeconomic stabilization.
The economic policy analysis shows that the investigated countries broke with the system of a centrally planned economy and started to create an institutional setting which is necessary for the free functioning of market mechanisms. In relative terms the Czech Republic and Hungary made the most progress. But in all these countries core elements of the market economy system are still incomplete, which has slowed down the catching-up progress.