Ukraine’s Economic Transformation in Western Academic Literature: A Selective Review

This?article?provides?a?limited?and?selective?review?of?the?academic?literature?on?Ukraine’s?economic?transformation,?specifically?1)?recapping?what?have?been?the?major?trends?in?this?research??2)?what?has?been?learned??and,?3)?what?is?still?useful?to?investigate?in?a?future?research?agenda.?From?a?metaanalysis?one?can?draw?quite?a?few?optimistic?conclusions.?First,?Ukraine?as?a?laboratory?for?academic?analysis?in?the?received?paradigm?of?the?economics?discipline?using?state?of?the?art?meth?odology,?attracting?solid?scholars,?both?established?and?recent?PhDs,?is?on?a?strong?footing,?and?very?much?on?the?radarscreen?of?the?Anglophone?profession.?Inasmuch?as?most?European?economists?with?global?ambition?invariably?publish?much?of?their?work?in?English,?this?means?that?the?interest?in?Ukraine?is?global,?or?at?least?in?the?North?Atlantic?sphere.?Second,?the?vast?majority?of?the?researchers?in?this?sample?are?not?Ukrainian?specialists?but?economists?with?a?current?interest?in?Ukraine,?which?suggest?that?while?they?may?move?on,?others?will?replace?them.?Third,?the?majority?of?researchers?are?neither?from?Ukraine?nor?of?the?diaspora,?again?suggesting?that?there?is?an?appetite?by?outsiders?to?do?academic?work?on?Ukraine.?It?concludes?with?a?ten?point?research?agenda that?highlights?in?particular?the?rich?potential?of?re?search?on?Ukraine’s?economic?transformation?with?the?pas?sage?of?time?and?increased?availability?of?data,?the?valuable?contribution?to?be?made?by?Ukrainian?economists?and?scholars,?the?need?for?focused?monographs?on?the?de?velopment?of?oligarchs?in?Ukraine,?and?the?merit?of?more?studies?on?land?privatization,?among?others.