The nine essays collected here examine ethnic relations, discrimination, and affirmative action in different regions of the world. The contributors focus throughout on the political economy of ethnic relations - an area that has until now been largely neglected in the literature. Written by economists, the papers both offer theoretical and empirical insights into standard neoclassical models of discrimination and explore in depth the historical and institutional features of the specific cases under study. Six of the papers address discrimination and affirmative action in developing countries; the remaining essays examine the problem as it has been manifested in socialist states. The aim throughout is to offer the reader an enhanced understanding of the economic and political genesis of the often catastrophic problems associated with ethnic discrimination.

Following a general introduction by the editor, the contributors examine relations between Arabs and Jews in the Israeli labor force; the complex interactions between human rights, affirmative action, and land reform in Latin America; and ethnic relations and the new economic policy in Malaysia. The three additional studies of ethnic problems in developing countries look at apartheid in South Africa, political and economic discrimination in Sri Lanka, and ethnic conflict in the Sudan. Turning to an examination of ethnic discrimination under communism, the contributors analyze the problems faced by gypsies in Eastern Europe, the politics of ethnicity and affirmative action in the Soviet Union, and labor market discrimination and ethnic tension in Yugoslavia. A bibliography is included for those wishing to pursue further research on the subject. By focusing attention on discrimination in regions of the world little studied in past works on ethnic conflict, these essays represent a unique and important contribution to the literature of international economics and political economy.

The end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s have witnessed the disintegration of all three formerly communist federal nations, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. These events have resulted in the creation of 22 new nations, raising all sorts of interesting questions. This volume is concerned with the first steps toward economic independence of a selection of these states, including Estonia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Georgia, as well as the former Yugoslavia republics of Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia, and Slovakia. While their experiences vary greatly, they face common problems, making policy selections from a fairly similar menu. The papers in this collection provide considerable insight into the prerequisites of economic independence. Researchers, scholars, and students (graduate and upper level undergraduate classes) of economics, economic and regional development, and economic history should find this book of considerable value.

The successful macroeconomic stabilization in Central and Eastern European countries has encouraged inflows of foreign capital badly needed to promote economic development. Strikingly, these countries have found capital inflows in their various forms to be a mixed blessing, threatening the macroeconomic balance that they have recently achieved. These countries have learned that it is not easy to continue to attract foreign capital and simultaneously to reduce its adverse effects on inflation, the exchange rate and the current account, and to contain disturbances resulting from reversals of the flows. This book investigates recent experiences in Central and Eastern Europe and contrasts it with that of Latin America and East Asia, and suggests appropriate policies and lessons to be learned. The authors conclude that many features of, and policy dilemmas faced by, formerly centrally planned economies in Europe are similar to those in other emerging economies. However, certain unique characteristics such as data limitations and the fragility of the banking and financial systems, compound the problems faced by policy makers in Central and Eastern Europe. This book will prove invaluable to policymakers and scholars interested in and responsible for international finance in transition economies.