Polish Economists Lag Behind Changes in the Economy

This article focuses on the debate among Polish economists regarding the current state of the Polish economy. Jan Kulig and Adam Lipowski take a stand in the economic and political debate which takes place in Poland today. Readers who are unfamiliar with the particularities of the Polish transition deserve a few words of explanation about the context of the Lipowski and Kulig essay. Radical transition to a market economy started in Poland after 1989 with the end of communist rule. Introduction of stabilization measures, liberalization, and deregulation of the economy took place in terrifically dramatic circumstances. At that moment, the Polish economy was institutionally immensely different from a command model: most of the state-owned enterprises could decide what to produce and what prices to demand, while employee councils often had a decisive say in their management.