Capital Market Development in Eastern and Central European Transition Economies

Abstract

While the paper touches upon the experience of most transition economies in Eastern and Central Europe, it focuses on the creation and functioning of capital market development in four countries in the region, namely, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia. Capital market in these four countries were already created or reestablished in the beginning of 1990s and government securities markets have been actively developed. These countries’ capital market development has been closely related to their choice of privatization methods. While success has been observed, many problems remain in achieving desired levels of market efficiency and transparency.