Volume 9, no. 1 (Spring 2006)
The Eastern European countries have been going through a transition phase since the liberalization of their economies with the collapse of communist regimes in the early 1990s. The attempts at transition from a centrally planned economy to a market based one has provided a fascinating laboratory for research in both theory and practice. The problems of how to make the transition are not fully resolved. Economists are still debating various strategies. While the neoclassical economists focus on the macroeconomic issues of the transition process, the Austrian School puts the focus on the microeconomic issues. Part of the ongoing debate among neoclassical economists is whether state owned industries need to be restructured before they can be privatized. Romania is an interesting case.
