Planning in Transition Economies for Growth and Equity
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this graduate-level course on the shift from centrally planned to market-oriented economies across the former Soviet bloc and beyond. Drawing on more than a decade of empirical evidence, the course examines why countries that pursued similar reform goals ended up with such different outcomes, and asks what that means for the relationship between business, government, and the public interest. Topics include the tension between growth and equity, the reshaping of cities under transition, and the institution-building and rebuilding that the course treats as the real core of the process. Materials include the syllabus, reading lists, and assignments as posted by MIT, free to access with no certificate offered. It suits students of urban planning, development economics, or political economy who want a structured look at post-socialist transformation rather than a single case study.