Economic Reforms and Constitutional Transition

Jeffrey Sachs, Wing Woo and Xiaokai Yang
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Jeffrey Sachs: Center for International Development and Department of Economics Harvard University

Annals of Economics and Finance, 2000, vol. 1, issue 2, 423-479

Abstract: This paper investigates the relationship between economic reforms and constitutional transition, which has been neglected by many transition economists. It is argued that assessment of reform performance might be very misleading if it is not recognized that economic reforms are just a small part of large scale of constitutional transition. Rivalry and competition between states and between political forces within each country are the driving forces for constitutional transition. We use Russia as an example of economic reforms associated with constitutional transition and China as an example of economic reforms in the absence of constitutional transition to examine features and problems in the two patterns of transition. It is concluded that under political monopoly of the ruling party, economic transition will be hijacked by state opportunism. Dual track approach to economic transition may generate very high long-term cost of constitutional transition that might outweigh its short-term benefit of buying out the vested interests.

Keywords: Transition economies; Constitutional economics; Inframarginal analysis; State opportunism; Dual track approach; Division of labor; Shock therapy; Gradualism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D23 L11 L22 L23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Economic Reforms and Constitutional Transition (2000)
Working Paper: Economic Reforms and Constitutional Transition (2000)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cuf:journl:y:2000:v:1:i:2:p:423-479

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