체제전환국의 경제자유화가 경제성장에 미친 영향에 대한 분석: 중동부유럽과 유라시아 국가를 중심으로

Abstract

The purpose of this study, covering 22 transition countries, is to analyze the relations between economic freedom, democratic reforms and economic growth during the period of 1997-2013. We classified the transition countries as two groups according to their regions and degrees of progress of economic growth. First, we run panel regressions of economic growth model. According to the analytical results, economic liberalization has a positive impact on economic growth, but democratic reforms are found to have a negative impact. The estimated coefficient for degree of economic liberalization has a positive sign in both groups. In case of the Central & Eastern European countries, the degree of economic liberalization exerts more positive impact on production per capita than the Eurasian countries. The estimated coefficients for degrees of democratic reforms have significant, negative signs in both groups. According to the result of the panel causality test, statistically significant, strong causal relation is found from economic freedom to economic growth in the entire group. Weak causal relation is also found in inverse direction. Causal relation from economic freedom to economic growth is found, but not in inverse direction in case of the Central & Eastern European countries. The impact of economic freedom on the per capita GDP level in each of the transition nations over the study period is shown, using fixed-effects estimations. The per capita GDP level is an increasing function of freedom from corruption, fiscal freedom, trade freedom, financial freedom and human capital, and a decreasing function of government size freedom. By contrast, it appears that business freedom, and probably monetary freedom as well, do not play major roles in determining the level of per capita income in transition nations. This study finds strong support for the hypothesis that the higher the degree of economic freedom, the higher the level of economic activity and, hence, the higher the per capita GDP level.