The collapse of the Soviet political and economic system in the late 1980s, epitomized by the fall of the Berline Wall in November 1989, culminated the dramatic economic slowdown experienced by the Soviet bloc coun- tries over the preceding three decades. The resulting transition from central planning to a market economy has been difficult. The performance of the transi- tion economies has fallen short of expectations for several reasons: advanced western economies did unusually well in the 1990s, which raised the bar for perceptions of economic success; the economic problems associated with the transition were widely underestimated; and policymakers made a number of ques- tionable choices.
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