Abstract

The economic transformation of Central European countries (Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary) represents a particularly interesting opportunity for studying institutional change. In particular, privatisation of state-owned enterprises makes it possible to analyse the relationship between institutional change at macro level and action, showing, on one hand, the way in which some specific "macro" institutions, that is laws on privatisation, have influenced company-level transformation, and, on the other, how the autonomous initiative of individual actors has reshaped a set of micro-institutions essential for economic relations and processes. The article is divided in three parts: the first one outlines the macro-institutional framework of privatisation. With this purpose, the features of the privatisation programmes implemented in each of the three countries are presented together with their aggregate results. In the second part, some relevant company-level developments are reviewed, namely some aspects of company-level industrial relations, human resource management and incentives, manager-workers relationship and corporate governance in employee ownership schemes, and inter-company credit and networks of firms. In the final part of the article, research data are discussed in order to give an interpretation of the privatisation programmes of Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary and to present some suggestions for an analytical framework that emphasises the role of actors and of their "local actions" for reconstructing the institutional environment of former communist countries.