Working Papers

The WNE Working Papers series has been published by the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw since 2008.

The WNE Working Papers series provides a fast, open channel for disseminating research conducted at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw. The papers hosted here are working versions (pre-prints) and may evolve as authors refine their analyses, incorporate feedback, or progress through formal peer-review. What you read is the current version released by the authors, timestamped and assigned DOI/ISSN identifiers to ensure precise citation and version tracking. Copyright remains with the authors, who may, at any time, upload a revised file or add a note directing readers to a later, peer-reviewed publication.

The Working Papers series accepts articles by research employees of the Faculty and publications from conferences organised at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw. Articles should be original research papers which have not been previously published, on the subject of economics.

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(1) the main text without the title of the article and the authors (DOC/DOCX file) and

(2) the title page including: the title of the paper, the authors and their affiliation (DOC/DOCX file).

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Number of Results 3

WP(21/2016)212. Post-Socialist Constitutions: The De Jure - De Facto Gap, Its Effects and Determinants

Authors: Metelska-Szaniawska Katarzyna
In this paper we aim to contribute to the debate on constitutional rules and their economic effects by extending the focus to the de jure – de facto constitutional gap. Firstly, we provide evidence that the size of this gap matters as non-compl…

WP212. Post-Socialist Constitutions: The De Jure - De Facto Gap, Its Effects and Determinants

In this paper we aim to contribute to the debate on constitutional rules and their economic effects by extending the focus to the de jure – de facto constitutional gap. Firstly, we provide evidence that the size of this gap matters as non-compliance lowers the effectiveness of the constitutional commitment mechanism. Secondly, we identify several explanans of this gap, in particular relating to the democratization process, political conflict, age and comprehensiveness of the constitution. We base the conclusions on an empirical study for the unique setting of the post-socialist countries of Europe and Asia, which all enacted new constitutional frameworks after 1989, and argue that the constitutions in these countries acted primarily as blueprints.


Metelska-Szaniawska Katarzyna
Constitutional Economics constitutional compliance post-socialist transition economic reforms sham constitutions

WP(18/2016)209. Reassessing the Economic Effects of Post-Socialist Constitutions Using the Synthetic Control Method

Authors: Metelska-Szaniawska Katarzyna
In response to the problems of endogeneity and causality in comparative studies with relatively small sample sizes, a new statistical approach has recently been developed, called the synthetic control method. In this paper we apply this method to rea…

WP209. Reassessing the Economic Effects of Post-Socialist Constitutions Using the Synthetic Control Method

In response to the problems of endogeneity and causality in comparative studies with relatively small sample sizes, a new statistical approach has recently been developed, called the synthetic control method. In this paper we apply this method to reassess the effect of constitution-making in post-socialist countries of Europe and Asia on performance of these countries in the field of economic reforms during the post-1989 transition. We first verify the existence of such effects and evaluate their statistical significance. Then we search for the explanation of these effects and their magnitude focusing on the characteristics of these constitutions and the solutions that they envisage (structural provisions, bills of rights and enforcement mechanisms). Thanks to employing this approach we are able to avoid several technical caveats that have arisen in earlier studies and verify the validity of their conclusions. In addition, we obtain country-specific results for each individual post-socialist state, as well as formulate detailed insights regarding the actual mechanisms or channels of influence of the constitutional framework on economic reforms.


Metelska-Szaniawska Katarzyna
Constitutional Economics post-socialist transition economic reforms synthetic control method synthetic counterfactuals

WP(33/2015)181. Economic Effects of Post-Socialist Constitutions Revisited (nearly) 25 Years from the Outset of Transition

Authors: Metelska-Szaniawska Katarzyna
Post-socialist transition taking place since 1989 in countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as later in Central and Southwestern Asia, brought about simultaneous changes of their political and economic systems, requiring the establishment o…

WP181. Economic Effects of Post-Socialist Constitutions Revisited (nearly) 25 Years from the Outset of Transition

Post-socialist transition taking place since 1989 in countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as later in Central and Southwestern Asia, brought about simultaneous changes of their political and economic systems, requiring the establishment of new constitutional frameworks. In this paper we study the effects of post-socialist constitutional change on economic policy decisions of countries involved in this process. As nearly 25 years have passed from the outset of transition, the data allows to conduct an empirical study based on an econometric model confirming the relevance of several constitutional rules in this respect, e.g. regarding the model of government and constitutional judiciary. Based on the results, recommendations are made for countries, where the transition process has been slow and unsuccessful.


Metelska-Szaniawska Katarzyna
Constitutional Economics post-socialist transition economic reforms direct democracy
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