Concluding Remarks

Any attempt to make some concluding comments on, and extract policy implications from, such a rich and diverse collection of papers has to be undertaken tentatively and with humility. This is the case for several reasons. Firstly, the book is about the Baltics in transition — a transition which is recent and still underway. Inevitably, some of the phenomena under scrutiny have as yet only been subject to a limited amount of analysis in the Baltic context. Secondly, this book represents only a relatively small cross-section of the academic and policy-related activity directed towards these countries in recent years. It is, however, based on a thorough attempt to identify a wide range of contributors who have been actively involved in studying aspects of the transition in these countries. Thirdly, the mix of chapters reflects the type of on-going work in the mid-1990s. Although it is diverse and offers a wide range of different insights, there are a number of important areas where relatively little academic work at the micro level has yet emerged. These include, for example, the detailed study of sectors, enterprises and entrepreneurs; the design, implementation and evaluation of policies directed to promote economic development; the exploration of areas of economic and social life within which government initiative would be best directed to aid the transition and so on.