EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

The Virtues of Gradualism and Legitimacy in the Transition to a Market Economy

Mathias Dewatripont and Gérard Roland

No 538, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper presents a simplified model of sectoral restructuring in Eastern Europe. A move towards allocative efficiency is desired by the reform-minded government, but the shift to higher productivity which such efficiency requires would lead to massive layoffs and labour reallocation in the transition period. We look at the impact of political constraints (unanimity and/or majority worker approval) on reform proposals when the government faces a heterogeneous workforce, holding private information on relative outside opportunities. When the budgetary consequences of exit compensations are so important as to make partial reforms preferable to full reforms, gradualism emerges as the optimum in a dynamic context without government commitment. It is also shown that under democratic majority rule, a government in control of the agenda of reforms can win majority approval for plans which end up hurting majority interests intertemporally by threatening to switch majorities in future reform proposals.

Keywords: Political Constraints; Sectoral Restructuring; Transition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1991-04
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=538 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: The Virtues of Gradualism and Legitimacy in the Transition to a Market Economy (1992) Downloads
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:538

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/ ... pers/dp.php?dpno=538

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:538