ERIK BERGL F is Chief Economist and Special Advisor to the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Previously, he was Director of the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE), the organizer of the Fifth Nobel Symposium in Economics. He is a widely published specialist in the field of transition economics and has regularly provided advice to national governments and international institutions. G RARD ROLAND is Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. He was a member of the Academic Committee f

• Introduction; E.Berglöf & G.Roland Soft Budget Constraint Theories: From Centralization to the Market; E.Maskin When does Privatization Work? The Impact of Private Ownership on Corporate Performance in the Transition Economies; R.Frydman, C.Gray, M.Hessel & A.Rapaczynski Disorganization and Financial Collapse; D.Marin & M.Schnitzer Transition with Labour Supply; T.Boeri The Evolution of Output in Transition Economics: Explaining the Differences; A.Berg, E.Borensztein & R.Sahay Property Rights, Finance, and Entrepreneurship; S.Johnson, J.McMillan & C.Woodruff Courts and Relational Contracts; S.Johnson, J.McMillan & C.Woodruff Dodging the Grabbing Hand: The Determinants of Unofficial Activity in Sixty-nine Countries; E.Friedman, S.Johnson, D.Kauffman & P.Zoido-Lobaton Why do Firms Hide? Bribes and Unofficial Activity after Communism; S.Johnson, D.Kauffman, J.McMillan & C.Woodruff The Causes of Corruption: A Cross-National Study; D.Treisman Incentives to Provide Local Public Goods: FiscalFederalism, Russian Style; E.Zhuravskaya Regional Decentralization and Fiscal Incentives: Federalism, Chinese Style; H.Jin, Y.Qian & B.R.Weingast The Razor's Edge: Distortions and Incremental Reform in the People's Republic of China; A.Young Coordinating Changes in Transition Economies; Y.Qian, G.Roland & C.Xu