Institutions and Efficiency in Transition Economies

This paper analyzes the effects of political and economic institutions on efficiency of transition economies over the 1995-2005 period. Perpetual Inventory Method is used to construct capital series for these countries, and then stochastic production frontier analysis is used to estimate the efficiency scores and effects of institutions at the same time. The empirical results show that better institutions are associated with higher efficiency. However, all else equal, the transition countries in East Asia are more efficient than Central and Eastern European or Former Soviet Union transition countries.