De crisis van de Tsjechische economie

Abstract

For a long time the Czech Republic was seen as an exainple of a successful transition process. This success was explained by the strict adherence of the Czech goverment to the policy prescriptions of the IMF and World Bank. This rosy picture changed during the second half of the nineties. The economic problenis culminated in a financial crisis in June 1997. Strangely enough, the economic problems were also blamed on the same reform process. Especially the privatisation process was accused of having taken a false course. At first glance it seems illogical to explain both the success and the failure of the reform process by the same phenomenon. This contradiction vanishes when the reform process is seen not as a whole but as a collection of policy measures, which did not 'fit' each other. In addition, also the environment influenced the outcome of the reform process. From this perspective the positive outcomes of the first half of the nineties can be explained as the result of a good starting position, an adequate macro-economic policy and the 'small' privatisation process. When these measures did not work any more, the negative effects of the 'voucher' privatisation process, the hardening of the politica1 climate and the lack of a national process of innovation became dominant. These explain the negative results of the second half of the nineties.