Coordinators:

Maria Lissowska (Warsaw School of Economics, Poland), lisso@sgh.waw.pl

Caroline Vincensini (ENS Cachan, France), caroline.vincensini@ens-cachan.fr

The Research Area on Structural and Institutional Change in Eastern Europe works on the issues related to the transition to a market economy of previously socialist economies and, more broadly, of countries developing their market economies. Created in the early 1990s, it focused on the most important problems in the evolution of East-European and other transition countries: privatization, foreign investment, changes of formal and informal institutions, changes of labour markets, and of wider society. Two decades after the start of transition, the current most relevant issues include, among others, taking stock of transition and ongoing institutional change in the light of recent developments, the challenges linked to integration in the EU (and perspectives for EMU), to the consequences of financial globalization and of course the paths of recovery after the crisis, and more generally the question of the possible economic growth and development models for the coming years for the transition countries.

The coordinators of the Research Area on Structural and Institutional Change in Eastern Europe always try to adjust the Research Area sessions to the general topic chosen for each annual conference of the Association, which correspond to the most important issues of that time.

The Annual Conference in Rome, in 2008, took place just before the twentieth anniversary of the first transition of a socialist country to the market economy, in Poland in summer 1989. To commemorate this anniversary, out of some of the contributions to the sessions of our Research Area, a special section in the Italian journal QA - Rivista dell’Associazione Rossi-Doria was prepared (forthcoming). In the same line of taking stock on the outcome of transition, the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy organized jointly with the University of Hertfordshire in October 2008 a Symposium entitled The Transformation of Post-Soviet Economies Twenty Years On.

The next Annual Conference, in Amsterdam in 2009, was devoted to the Institutional Solutions for Economic Recovery. The Research Area on Structural and Institutional Change in Eastern Europe worked in two directions. One was focused on specificities of the economic crisis in post-socialist countries. The other direction was devoted to broader reflections on the trajectories of development of those countries, and on their similarities and differences as compared to developed and developing economies.

The title of the most recent Annual Conference, in 2010 in Bordeaux, was The economic crisis and the renewal of the European model(s). Revisiting the debate on varieties of capitalism. The debate that the members of our Research Area had during the special sessions focused on the painful experiences of post-transition countries during the economic crisis and equally painful strategies of recovery. The problem of robustness of different models of capitalism applied in those countries came to the fore.

The Research Area  on Structural and Institutional Change in Eastern Europe is coordinated by Maria Lissowska from Warsaw School of Economics (Poland)  (lisso@sgh.waw.pl) and Caroline Vincensini from IDHE-Cachan  (France) (caroline.vincensini@ens-cachan.fr). If you are interested in cooperation with our Research Area or just wish to be on the mailing list to obtain current information, please contact us.