The Price of Failure:

Summaries This article examines the development of monetary policy in Russia since prices were liberalised in 1992. It traces events from the monetary overhang which preceded that step, through sharp inflation and the monetary contraction with which stability was restored, to the present crisis of illiquidity and demonetisation. The article argues that, far from easing the way to flexible, market?based policies, this chain of events has left policymakers as severely boxed in as at the start. While any reform strategy was fraught with danger, it would have been better to take a less cavalier attitude to prices and concentrate from the beginning on building the financial and legal institutions required for macro?economic policy to work

Transition in kyrgyzstan:

Summaries This article attempts to move away from macrolevel analyses and descriptions of the process of transition. It thus not only explores the social effects of transition in Kyrgyzstan in three distinct local contexts, but also considers the impact on children. It underlines the need for both localised studies of transitional economies as well as disaggregated research on particular social groups

Romanian Suburban Housing : Home Improvement through Owner-building

The new suburban housing developments in post-socialist cities have been ubiquitous icons of socioeconomic and physical change. This paper examines suburban owner-built housing as a long-term strategy of home improvement in Romania. It analyses residents’ motivations and financial strategies to move up the housing ladder through owner-building and their responses to key neighbourhood problems, in particular poor public infrastructure and non-existent public facilities. I argue that owner-builders generally benefitted from the economic informality, the relaxed legal culture and the unregulated housing context of the Romanian post-socialist transition; but the absence of public actors has weakened their achievements, which is most apparent at neighbourhood level. The paper draws attention to a context of politico-economic reforms and a set of socio-cultural values of housing privatism in which resident responses may frequently generate consequential (collective) problems localised at the level of streets, neighbourhoods or even the whole society.PostprintPeer reviewe