Roadblocks to the Socialist Modernization Path and Transition Evidence from East Germany and Poland

This open access book examines how different economic systems impacted the development of East Germany and Poland. Through comparing these countries while they were centrally planned socialist economies with the periods when they transitioned to capitalism, the inability of socialist economies to modernize effectively and produce sustained economic growth is highlighted. Particular attention is given the role of technological progress in economic growth, peculiar institutions, the creation and transfer of knowledge, and post-socialist transformations.

The book presents a detailed analysis of the barriers to modernization and growth implied by Soviet-type state socialism and the differences and similarities between the transition of East Germany and Poland to capitalist market economies. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in comparative systems and the political economy.

1. Introduction.- 2. From East to West: Modernization efforts in the northern and western regions of Poland (1944-1989).- 3. The importance of technical progress for economic growth in the GDR .- 4. Inefficiency and intransparency in East German foreign trade.- 5. Historical Legacies of Regional Innovation Activity.- 6. Catching-up modernization: Synthetic fibre in the GDR and Poland.- 7. The re-allocation of entrepreneurial talent over the course of radical institutional change – an institutional perspective.- 8. When backwardness became an advantage: Stays abroad as birth assist in Polish transformation.- 9. Transfer of knowledge from the outside or self-learning? Key success criteria for setting-up enterprises in East Germany and Poland after 1989.- 10. GDR’s researchers catching up on their inclusion in international scientific communities.- 11. After 1989: Socialist elites and post-socialist transformations.

Jutta Günther is Professor of Economics at the University of Bremen.

Dagmara Jajesniak-Quast is Professor of Economics at the European University Viadrina.

Udo Ludwig is a Researcher at the Halle Institute for Economic Research and an Emeritus Honorary Professor at Leipzig University.

Hans-Jürgen Wagener is an Emeritus Professor at the European University Viadrina.