21 Jul 2016
NEW PUBLICATION: “Change in Economic Policy Paradigm: Privatization and State Capture in Poland”
Since the beginning of the global financial crisis, we have witnessed a shift in national economic policies towards a more active role of the state, far beyond its previous role as a regulator, acquiring more active and interventionist functions. This shift seems to be of a dominant nature and involves countries with different patterns of economic policy: from “neoliberal” USA, through to “pragmatic” Germany, to “statist” (toutes proportions gardées) France. This shift enjoys support from many of the most renowned economists, including Nobel Prize winners Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, and is contributing to the “resurrection” of Keynesian ideas.
Piotr Kozarzewski and Maciej Bałtowski in the new CASE publication: “Change in Economic Policy Paradigm: Privatization and State Capture in Poland” analyse the causes and manifestations of this trend in economic policy in Poland. They use privatization policy as an example. The authors examine the effects of the privatization policy and point to a large unfinished agenda in ownership transformation that has had an adverse impact on the institutional setup of the Polish state, creating grounds for rent seeking and cronyism, which, in turn, impede the pace of privatization. They find out that it is the increasing capture of the state by rent-seeking groups, and not, contrary to popular opinion, the global financial crisis, that most contributes to the growing statist trends of Poland’s economic policy.
The publication is a part of a CASE Working Papers series.
Read the publication here.
