Eastern Europe
Financial reform

Eastern Europe is engaged in a massive programme of financial reform and has made considerable progress in restructuring its banking sector and integrating it into the international financial system. In Discussion Paper No. 603, Programme Director Colin Mayer and Research Fellow Jenny Corbett argue that Eastern Europe's policy-makers have failed to address some of the most basic issues involved in the relationship between the financial system and the enterprise sector. They maintain that the reforming economies need not adopt financial systems of the UK or US type in order to achieve the successful privatization of their state enterprises; they may have much to learn from `insider' methods of corporate control, as found in Germany and Japan. There has been inadequate consideration of the choices available, and it is far from clear that Eastern Europe is currently proceeding with the right model.
Professor Mayer presented this paper at an October joint lunchtime meeting with the Institut d'Etudes Européennes, reported more fully in this issue of the Bulletin.

Financial Reform in Eastern Europe: Progress with the Wrong Model
Jenny Corbett and Colin P Mayer

Discussion Paper No. 603, September 1991 (AM)