Open AccessIndependence and Macroeconomic Stabilization in ex-Yugoslav and Former Soviet Republics
Author(s) -
Evan Kraft
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
the carl beck papers in russian and east european studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2163-839X
pISSN - 0889-275X
DOI - 10.5195/cbp.2000.87
Subject(s) - independence (probability theory) , argument (complex analysis) , soviet union , communism , inflation (cosmology) , irrational number , economics , political science , political economy , development economics , economic system , economic history , law , biochemistry , statistics , chemistry , physics , mathematics , geometry , politics , theoretical physics
The breakup of the Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia raises the question of the economic viability of the new post-Communist states. It is distinctly possible that separation was economically irrational exante, for at least some of the new states.' This, however" will be eternally debatable, while expost results can at least be studied empirically. The useful studies undertaken by Uvalic and von Selm, discussing the costs and benefits of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union respectively, rely more on theoretical argument and prediction than on analysis of postindependence outcomes. This essay attempts a more modest task: to see whether separation has facilitated the new states' efforts to handle the urgent tasks of bringing down inflation rates and creating a macroeconomic en virorunent conducive to economic growth.