 The structural transformation of transition economiesCalumn Hamilton and Gaaitzen J. de Vries World Development, 2025, vol. 191, issue C Abstract: This paper places recent growth and structural transformation in the former-Soviet Union (FSU) countries in comparative perspective. It introduces the Economic Transformation Database of Transition Economies, which provides consistent annual data of employment, real and nominal value added by 12 sectors in 14 FSU countries for the period 1990–2019. We find that structural change in FSU countries has been uniquely growth-reducing as workers relocated to less productive sectors. This contrasts to sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, developing Asia, and the formerly centrally planned economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), where labour has shifted from low- to high-productivity sectors. Our analysis reveals that average aggregate productivity growth was 0.64 percentage points lower each year in FSU countries, while it was 0.31 percentage points per annum higher in CEE countries due to their differing patterns of structural change. We argue that these differences stem from varying initial conditions, external factors, and reform strategies. Keywords: Structural change; ETD-TE database; Productivity growth; Transition economies (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:191:y:2025:i:c:s0305750x25000622 DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.106977 Access Statistics for this article World Development is currently edited by O. T. Coomes More articles in World Development from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.