Paolo Verme, Dr, Consultant with World Bank, European Union and Asian Development Bank and The London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. The author is a development economist who has been working over the past ten years for various organisations including the World Institute for Development Economics Research, The

• Contents: Explaining the L-Shaped Transition: Transition, output and labour in CIS and CEE economies; Towards a model of the L-shaped transition. Kazakhstan: Transitional reforms and recessional dynamics; The reallocation of labour; Labour supply. Labour and Development: Labour market policies and the future of labour; Conclusion; Appendix; Bibliography.

’In this book Paolo Verme offers a powerful new analysis and interpretation of developments in the Kazakh labour market since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Using previously unpublished data and new empirical research, he demonstrates that the transition in Kazakhstan has been from a planned economy not to a market economy of the first world but more to a market economy of the third world, where the dual labour market and the informal sector are the key to understanding developments. Paolo Verme is the most knowledgeable and authoritative economist working on the Kazakh labour market, and his analysis should be of key interest to all concerned with the problems of labour markets in the transition.’ Richard Jackman, Professor of Economics, London School of Economics