Comparison of the Economic Performance of Czechoslovakia, Respectively the Czech Republic and the Former GDR in the 1980s and 1990s

The bachelor thesis analyses and compares the state of the economies of the Czechoslovak Republic and the former GDR in the 1980s and 1990s. The thesis provides a closer look at the two most advanced economies of the former Eastern Bloc. The aim of the analysis is to test the hypothesis that the GDR was better prepared for the transition to a market economy in the late 1980s than was the case for the Czechoslovakia. The results of the research refute the hypothesis, as both economies suffered from the problems that resulted from the central planning of the economy and the foreign trade policies pursued, with an emphasis on the friendly socialist countries of the Comecon, especially USSR. Although there were differences in the economic performance of the countries under study, the nature of these differences was not such as to give the GDR an advantage at the beginning of the transition. In the 1990s, the presented indicators of economic convergence were more favourable to Czechoslovakia.