Abstract (may include machine translation)
Measuring the level of a country's openness in foreign trade is considered to be a difficult undertaking. Data on the level of globalization provide no more than an inadequate picture of the relative level of openness of foreign trade in the states undergoing transformation. This gap has now been filled by the new ELITE data set covering the years 1993-2000. Two opposing tendencies can be identified. On the one hand, transformation states liberalized the ways in which they regulate trade. During the same period, however, they increased the level of protection afforded to trade in capital. The most important factors for liberalization are the kind of regime change and the degree of democratization. Democracies turn out to be more open than autocracies. On the other hand, economic causes of reform such as the scale of the transformation crisis or the level of international financial aid are of very little significance for reform in the sphere of foreign trade.
Translated title of the contribution | Buying reforms, dictating opening? Determinants of foreign trade policy in Eastern Europe |
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Original language | German |
Pages (from-to) | 1639-1656+1751 |
Journal | Osteuropa |
Volume | 53 |
Issue number | 11 |
State | Published - Nov 2003 |
Externally published | Yes |