Torbjörn Becker, Director of Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics

1. 25 Years of Transition—Lessons for
the future?
Torbjörn Becker, Director of SITE
torbjorn.becker@hhs.se

2. What are the relevant dimensions?
Income
Health
Political freedom
Civil liberties
Rule of law
Government institutions
Market structure
Income distribution
…

3. Economic Transitions (GDP/cap PPP)
CIS: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, (Georgia), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, (Turkmenistan), (Ukraine), Uzbekistan
EU10: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
Top EU10
Bottom EU10
Top CIS
Bottom CIS

4. Human Development Index
0.5
0.55
0.6
0.65
0.7
0.75
0.8
0.85
0.9
0.95
1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

5. Life expectancy at birth
60
65
70
75
80
85
1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

6. Civil liberties
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

7. Political rights
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

8. Transition so far
Transition is not just about economics and income
Lot’s of progress in many dimensions
“New” EU10 member states have made more progress
than CIS countries in along most dimensions
More convergence among EU10 countries than among
CIS countries
Diverging trends in terms of civil liberties and political
rights between EU10 and CIS countries
The transition process still has some ways to go in most
countries and along several dimensions
But overall, it was NOT better before!

9. SITE today
Research on topics relevant to transition countries is
the academic foundation of the institute
“Translating” and communicating research findings
that matter for policy in policy briefs, seminars and
conferences different from other academic institutions
Networking and institution building in the region is a
significant part of SITE’s work
FREE is a unique network of modern economics
institutions in the region that SITE is part of and have
helped develop and administer with funding from
Swedish government sources

10. FREE Network
CEFIR
ISET
KSE
BEROC
BICEPS
CenEA
SITE

11. FREE Network
150 Policy Briefs
published
20+ Different
subfields
2011 Publishing
Policy briefs
since
80+ Authors
within network

12. Visit freepolicybriefs.org for access

13. 1
Thank you