Europe is in a serious crisis but that it can face up to these challenges. In Europe's Growth Challenge Anders Aslund and Simeon Djankov argue that the European Union can only be successful if it carries out substantial changes in the European economic system.  European society benefits from equality in income, excellent healthcare and basic education, good infrastructure, and developed institutions for the rule of law. But Europe has entered a period of economic stagnation and is distracted by multiple challenges. Economic and political strains have stalled vital reforms, while the threat of disunion is evident. By focusing on what works in Europe and the great variations within Europe, Aslund and Djankov show how Europe can develop a strategy for higher economic growth. They advocate a reduction of the fiscal role of the state, an opening up of services and digital trade, an easing of the regulatory and tax burdens on labor, an improved environment for startups and innovation, pension reform, and the development of Europe's energy union.  In spite of Europe's many achievements, Europe needs to address its growth challenge to stay afloat. Aslund and Djankov provide novel insights and provocative ways forward.

Europe's Growth Challenge

Business & Money

Åslund, Anders

Djankov, Simeon

Economics

Oxford University Press

A penetrating look into the extreme plutocracy Vladimir Putin has created and its implications for Russia’s future This insightful study explores how the economic system Vladimir Putin has developed in Russia works to consolidate control over the country. By appointing his close associates as heads of state enterprises and by giving control of the FSB and the judiciary to his friends from the KGB, he has enriched his business friends from Saint Petersburg with preferential government deals. Thus, Putin has created a super wealthy and loyal plutocracy that owes its existence to authoritarianism. Much of this wealth has been hidden in offshore havens in the United States and the United Kingdom, where companies with anonymous owners and black money transfers are allowed to thrive. Though beneficial to a select few, this system has left Russia’s economy in untenable stagnation, which Putin has tried to mask through military might.

Russia's Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy

Yale University Press

How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia

How Capitalism Was Built tells the story of how the former communist countries in East and Central Europe, Russia, and Central Asia became market economies from 1989 to 2006. It discusses preconditions, political breakthroughs, and alternative reform programs. Three major chapters deal with the deregulation of prices and trade, price stabilization, and privatization. Early radical reform made output decline the least. Social developments have been perplexing but mixed. The building of democracy and the establishment of the rule of law have been far less successful. International assistance has been limited but helpful. This region has now become highly dynamic, but corruption remains problematic.

Cambridge University Press

Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc

This book offers the most comprehensive empirical analysis of the economic transformation of the countries comprising the former Soviet bloc during the first decade after communism. It debunks many myths, seeing transition as a struggle between radical reformers and those thriving on rent seeking. Privatization has undoubtedly been beneficial, and its positive effects will grow over time. The main problem has been the continuation of large, unregulated and ubiquitous state apparatuses living on corruption, while no country has suffered from too radical reforms. Where malpractices of the elite can be checked, market reforms and democracy have proceeded together.

How Capitalism Was Built tells the story of how the former communist countries in East and Central Europe, Russia, and Central Asia became market economies from 1989 to 2006. It discusses preconditions, political breakthroughs, and alternative reform programs. Three major chapters deal with the deregulation of prices and trade, price stabilization, and privatization. Early radical reform made output decline the least. Social developments have been perplexing but mixed. The building of democracy and the establishment of the rule of law have been far less successful. International assistance has been limited but helpful. This region has now become highly dynamic, but corruption remains problematic.

Gorbachev's Struggle for Economic Reform

Cornell University Press

Ukraine may have taken a "gradualist" approach to economic reform, but the results have been no better than in Russia. The editors have assembled the leading specialists on the Ukrainian economy, including officials from major Ukrainian and international economic institutions, to outline the major problems of the economy, analyze the initial phases of economic reform in Ukraine, assess their outcomes, and chart the way forward.

Economic Reform in Ukraine: The Unfinished Agenda: The Unfinished Agenda

Menil, Georges De

Routledge

This new edition of Aslund's analysis of Soviet economic change places Gorbachev's reforms in context and brings the reader up to date with the mammoth task that still lies ahead. The opening chapters set out a framework for interpreting current events in the USSR.

Gorbachev's struggle for economic reform: The Soviet reform process, 1985-1988 (Studies in Soviet history and society)

NCROL

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Åslund, Anders. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Åslund, Anders

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Åslund, Anders. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Europe's Growth Challenge

Russia's Crony Capitalism: The Path from Market Economy to Kleptocracy

How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia

Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc

Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc

How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia

Gorbachev's Struggle for Economic Reform

Economic Reform in Ukraine: The Unfinished Agenda: The Unfinished Agenda

Gorbachev's struggle for economic reform: The Soviet reform process, 1985-1988 (Studies in Soviet history and society)

Gorbachev's struggle for economic reform: The Soviet reform process, 1985-1988 (Studies in Soviet history and society)