Is the role of micro-enterprises, i.e. those that employ 0-9 people, in Poland greater or smaller than their role in other nations of the European Union?  How are Polish enterprises different from “EU” enterprises?  Ewa Balcerowicz seeks to answer these questions in her recently published article, “Micro-enterprises in Poland in the broader context of the European Union,” in the latest edition of the Report on the Condition of the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Sector in Poland in 2007- 2008. 

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co-authored by Anders Aslund, chairman of the CASE Advisory Council and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics; and Andrew Kuchins, senior fellow as the Center for Strategic International Studies; is a clear and insightful analysis of the driving forces of contemporary Russia.  The authors provide thoughtful and provocative policy recommendations for improving US-Russia relations, and emphasize the importance of mutual understanding between the states.  Zbigniew Brzezinski describes the book as "rightly critical of the overly personalized style of the previous US administration's policy". 

The recently published book is available at http://bookstore.piie.com/book-store/4242.html. 

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"Gazprom has gone from being a great commercial hope to an ailing giant. Gazprom's owners need to face up to the crisis and institute reforms," writes  Anders Aslund in CASE Network E-brief 6/2009.  "The current recession exposes Gazprom's weakness and offers an excellent opportunity to reform it.  For the European Union, Gazprom's new weakness offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the gas trade with Russia to improve." 

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Many famous economists (like Mises, Hayek, Schumpeter, Nozick and other thinkers) have noted that under democratic capitalism there are always influential intellectualists who condemn capitalism and call for the state to restrain the markets. Such an activity bears no risk and may be very rewarding – argues Leszek Balcerowicz, the Member of CASE Supervisory Council in the article titled "This has not been a pure failure of markets" published in Financial Times of May 14, 2009 – see http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/db850b90-401f-11de-9ced-00144feabdc0.html?nclick&nclick_check=1.

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Every two years CASE organizes an international conference gathering researchers, analysts, policymakers and representatives of the business community from Europe, the US and many Asian and Middle East countries.

The main theme of the forthcoming conference will be the current global financial and macroeconomic crisis with a focus on the shock transmission from developed countries to emerging market economies.

Crisis management, policy responses and short and long-term consequences of the crisis both in a global and a regional scale will be topics of discussion. Taking the perspective of current and future policy challenges, rather than anniversary’s celebration, the twenty years of post-communist transition (1989-2009) will be aknowledged and debated.

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edited by Stanislawa Golinowska, Peter Hengstenberg and Maciej Zukowski deals with the complex issue of forming a European Social Model.  One important insight is that having member states working together on common social policy challenges is a more proactive approach given the supranational character of some social issues and the added value a European perspective can bring to national policies.

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by Anders Aslund provides an insightful analysis of the country’s transformation since its independence in 1991.  Three periods of reforms particularly contributed to making this transformation a success. Economically, Kuchma’s 1994-96 financial stabilization and mass privatization and Yushkenko’s 2000 cracking on the rent-seeking society allowed for economic growth to return.  Politically, the 2004 Orange Revolution provided the necessary impetus for democracy to break through in the country.  http://bookstore.petersoninstitute.org/book-store/4273.html

Anders Aslund, currently a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, is also Chairman of CASE’s Advisory Council.  

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A lack of a coordinated global monetary policy at a time when finance and the economy are inextricably interrelated allowed the US and other major central banks to adopt lax monetary policies for too long. While the interest rate cuts fueled global economic growth in the short-term, and inflation was nowhere on the horizon, excess liquidity resulting from low interest rate and emerging markets’ mercantilist policy eventually created three asset bubbles in the real estate, stock, and commodity markets which led to the current financial crisis.  [PRESENTATION]

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“Get policy-makers to support stronger macroeconomic fundamentals, to promote greater integration with regional and global trading blocs, and to reform domestic, financial, regulatory, and political institutions” answers Alina Kudina in CASE’s just released Network E-brief (No.02/2009).

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"Hire fewer mathematicians and physicists and a few more historians" remarks Professor Charles Goodhart during the 100th BRE-CASE Seminar held on 22 January 2009 at BRE BANK SA premises.  [click to enlarge picture]

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