JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE ECONOMICS 24, 107–108 (1997)ARTICLE NO. JE961397

MARVIN JACKSON, JENO KOLTAY, AND WOUTER BIESBROUCK, Eds., Unem-ployment and Evolving Labor Markets in Central and Eastern Europe.Avebury, England: Aldershot, 1995. xviii / 227 pp., no index.

The decade’s immense political and economic changes in Central andEastern Europe have profound implications for labor markets and associatedinstitutional arrangements. We desperately need to better understand the na-ture, scope and effects of these changes. A volume that networks researcherswith a common objective, to improve knowledge on unemployment and alsoto come up with policy measures, has much potential. Yet this edited collec-tion, with country studies for Romania, Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic,Slovenia, Poland, and Hungary, ultimately disappoints. In the fast-changingcontexts confronting transition economies, most chapters contain data thatare not current. Moreover, presentations are often essentially descriptive, withlimited statistical analysis from which to derive specific policy prescriptions.Hence, at best the volume is only partially successful in advancing knowledgein this important area.

As is the norm with edited collections, the volume contains essays that area mixed bag. Weakest are those chapters that are largely descriptive and notnecessarily original, e.g., the chapter by Miron on Romania. Also, while thelong chapter on Poland by Witkowski is packed with information on thestructure of unemployment, it contains no fresh analysis. Similarly, the over-view chapter by Koltay provides a good review of the nature of unemploymentin several transition economies, with information on inflows and outflows,the structure of labor supply and on active and passive labor market policies.However, most data stop in 1992. In addition, the analytical component isslim, for example, there is no attempt to link within country differences overtime with changes in labor market or macro policies.

Compared to most chapters, there is a more extensive attempt at analysisin the chapter by Kollo on Hungary. However, since the exposition of findingsis poorly organized, and there is little discussion of results, it is not clear thatmuch is learned from the analysis. In addition, logit analysis is used toexamine the determinants of selected labor market transitions for individuals,for example, from unemployment to employment. But since several transitionsare possible, for example, including from unemployment to out-of-the-laborforce, arguably it is more appropriate to use multinomial logit methods. An-other useful chapter is by Drobnic and Rus on Slovenia. It contains some

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108 BOOK REVIEWS

useful exploratory analysis of the determinants of transition from unemploy-ment to employment. However, since the estimated models do not containany policy variables, the analysis is of limited use for policy purposes.

While the editorial task is often quite challenging with collections of thiskind, in this case there are clear ways in which improved editing would havedelivered a better product. First, often the writing is elliptical, poorly orga-nized, difficult to read, and prone to errors. Thus in the very first Table (1.1),there are no labels for the last row of data, presumably the third quarter of1993. The first two sentences that introduce the chapter on Romania arebaffling (p. 31) and on the same page we find the word ‘‘conjunctural.’’ Also,while the readability of some chapters would have been improved by pruning,e.g., on Poland, arguably in other cases a longer exposition would havebeen better, e.g., Romania. In addition, the separate accounts of the Czechexperience sometimes overlap, e.g., the data in Tables 3.3. and 4.3.; it wouldhave been preferable if these chapters had been better integrated. Second, themessage would have been clearer if a common agenda had been chosen for allcountry chapters. For example, we do not even get consistent and comparableinformation for all countries on key policies such as the system of unemploy-ment compensation. To the extent that some chapters have more analyticalcontent, these essays vary much in the methods and the underlying data thatare used to try to generate new findings. Consequently this makes it quitedifficult to derive general findings from the several country experiences.

In sum, those wishing to learn more about the nature and analysis ofunemployment during transition will profit from a read of this volume. Atthe same time, better alternatives already exist in this area, including publica-tions by international organizations such as the World Bank, the OECD, andthe ILO.

DEREK JONESHamilton CollegeClinton, New York 13323and London Business SchoolLondon, United Kingdom

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