Anton MARCINCIN

The World Bank country economist for Slovakia, Slovenia and Czech Republic, he is an editor of Economic Policy in Slovakia 2000-01 and Economic Policy in Slovakia 1990-99 (with Miroslav Beblavy). He is also an editor of Finance a uver - Czech Journal of Economics and Finance. Having studied at CERGE-EI Prague, completed his dissertation in Tinbergen Institute Amsterdam and CEP London School of Economics, and defended PhD at Charles University in Prague. As a researcher of Czech Academy of Science, MESA10, Center for Economic Development and later Slovak Foreign Policy Association, Marcincin contributed to several books and published many articles on corporate governance, labor market and public finance. He gave courses on Charles University and Trnava University and now has regular lectures at Comenius University.

Abstract of the speech:

Is there any need to teach people in post-communist economies market behaviour? Are Slovaks less or more entrepreneurial than other nations? Are Slovaks more pesimistic than other nations? My answers are no -no - no. Market forces, or "market behaviour" are present in all societies, irrespectivelly of their ideology or name. Quality of regulations and governance explains how entrepreneurial talents are utilized. Corporate restructuring, as an adaptation mechanism to expected development in regulations, then provides background to informed policy decisions. Experience in Slovakia shows that restructuring often went wrong, corporate governance was inadequate, and fraud was usual. Are these good reasons for the pesimism? Recent development indicates, a popular notions could be reversed unexpectedly fast.