This book brings together ten original studies on the transition and growth experience and the foundations for long-term growth of the newly independent states created by the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Beginning with an overview of the common pre-1992 background and comparative information on the post-1992 performance of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, the authors continue by reviewing the Soviet background and post-independence experience. They then emphasize both the uniformity and diversity of the twelve CIS countries’ recent history. The problem of explaining economic growth in transition economies is also explored, and individual in-depth country studies are presented.

The contributors to the book are a combination of in-country researchers with in-depth local knowledge and access to data, and international economists with technical expertise and experience of long-term growth in other countries. This approach ensures the book’s appeal to academics and researchers of economic growth, transition and comparative economics. Economists assigned to the region or any individual CIS country will find the analysis invaluable.