Davidson Data Center and Network for Transition Economies

William Davidson Institute, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

This grant establishes the Davidson Data Center and Network (DDCN), a center and an international network of institutions to make widely available micro and macroeconomic data on transition economies (those moving from central planning to a market system). The DDCN has been discussed and formulated with the leading institutions in the field of transition and emerging markets. Providing access to these data is important for many reasons. In addition to providing valuable information on the unprecedented process of reform in transition economies, data from these economies allow better tests of basic economic theories since mature market economies rarely display sizable variation in key variables and since transition economies provide opportunities to analyze the emergence of phenomena that have been long established in market economies. Research based on these data will also have considerable policy impact. The transition economies comprise over one-third of the world's population and a better understanding of how public policy can improve the functioning of these economies will have a tremendous impact on the welfare of the poor. Moreover, major reforms in transition economies have so far been made largely on the basis of the experience of advanced economies, and at times they have generated undesirable outcomes. The DDCN will have a significant beneficial impact on graduate education and academic as well as non-academic research in several respects. First, it will promote research on transition economies by significantly lowering both the costs of and the risks associated with such research. Second, it will increase collaboration among researchers already studying the transition economies, helping to eliminate wasteful duplication of effort in collecting data. Third, the DDCN will have a particularly great benefit for graduate students, many of whom depend on readily obtainable data for the success of their dissertation research.