Authors: Simon Commander, Fabrizio Coricelli

Published by World Bank Publications, 1995

ISBN 082132988X, 9780821329887

391 pages

When transition started in Eastern Europe and in Russia, it was clear that unemployment would emerge and that, at least initially, job losses were likely to be large given size of the shocks and the disruption to systems of production and trade. How large that unemployment would be and for how long it would persist was, and to some extent remains, an unknown. This book is a first attempt at examining this phenomenon and provides a coherent framework for thinking about changes to employment in the countries that are undergoing substantial transition.

Several important and general findings emerge. First, state and privatized firms have active sought to adapt the new relative prices and markets. Second, while there as been impressive growh in the private sector, in most of the countries, many of those who have lost their former state sector jobs. Third, steps to a more efficient allocation of labor resources in the transitional economies and to a well-functioning labor market depend very powerfully on a sound macroeconomic policy.