Enterprise adjustment in transition economies: Czechoslovakia, Hungry and Poland?

This paper analyzes the impact of the Polish stabilization program on the behavior of state-owned firms by summarizing and evaluating three case studies. The authors outline a framework to analyze whether firms have adjusted differently according to differences in their market power, financial status, or exposure to trade and international comparative advantage. They find no evidence for differences in adjustment from any source; in all three industries adjustment has been relatively modest and the governance of firms has hardly changed at all.