Transition Has Been Relatively Successful, Says Leading Slovene Economist

Ljubljana, 18 July - Discussion on the issue of transition continues. The former divide between the advocates of the "shock" therapy and the advocates of the gradual method has been replaced by a divide between those who are satisfied and those who are not - while the former are usualy optimists, the latter are pessimists when looking at the future. This was established by Joze Mencinger, a leading Slovene economist who is currently the Chancellor of the Ljubljana University, in an article entitled "Ten Years On: Transition - Success, Failure or Something In-between?" which was published in the latest issue of Gospodarska gibanja (Economic Movements). Mencinger believes that the economic results of a majority of transition economies are worse than expected, while social costs of transition are greater than expected.