The Political Economy of Reform

In this book, Federico Sturzenegger and Mariano Tommasi propose formal models toanswer some of the questions raised by the recent reform experience of many Latin American and EastEuropean countries. They apply common standards of analytical rigor to the study of economic andpolitical behavior, assuming political agents to be rational and forward-looking, with expectationsconsistent with the properties of the underlying model.The book is organized around three basicquestions: first, why do reforms take place? Second, how are reforms implemented? And third, whichcandidates are most likely to undertake reform? Although most of the chapters deal with policyissues in developing economies, the findings also apply to areas such as social security and healthcare reform in industrialized countries.

Federico Sturzenegger is President of the Banco Ciudad de Buenos Aires. He is the coauthor, with Jeromin Zettelmeyer, of Debt Defaults and Lessons from a Decade of Crises (MIT Press, 2007).