This book investigates the institutional underpinnings of the relatively strong economic performance in Central Asian countries since their independence. The New Institutional Economics as well as Political Economy approaches provide the conceptual framework for case studies. All contributions consider factor markets and institutions as fundamental drivers of economic growth. This volume scrutinizes the evolution, design, and performance of factor markets in the region including land and natural resources, labor, physical and human capital.

The politico-economic relations between the European Union (EU) and Eastern Europe are currently entering a new phase, which some scholars qualify as a revival of the Cold War. This insightful book seeks to explain whether and why a Cold War Europe has returned and discusses underlying factors that clarify the relations between East and West since the Second World War. Nienke de Deugd and Herman W. Hoen comprehensively address the problematic process of EU integration, discussing crucial political, economic and security-related developments during and after the Cold War. De Deugd and Hoen...