From Plan to Market

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Teaching Ideas for Social Studies, Economics, and Business Classes This packet of lessons focuses on the transition from a legacy of central planning to a market orientation in the economic systems of Central and Eastern Europe, the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, and China. These lessons seek to provide high school teachers with a well-informed approach to teaching about this transition. The lessons emphasize the complex texture of events and the regional distinctions found among the transition economies. The materials also highlight findings about certain conditions that seem crucial to economic reform and introduce economic concepts that teachers and students can use to describe and explain the successes and the failures of economic change. The ten lessons include: (1) "The Legacy of Soviet Communism"; (2) "Different Paths to Reform: Case Studies of Poland, China, and Russia"; (3) "Political and Economic Freedoms"; (4) "How To Privatize?"; (5) "Monopoly Is Not Just a Game"; (6) "Why Trade?"; (7) "Why Middlemen Matter: The Role of Financial Institutions in a Market Economy"; (8) "Resisting the Siren Song of Inflation"; (9) "Brother, Can You Spare a Ruble?"; and (10) "Distribution of Income: Different Ways to Slice the Pie." The appendix contains selected world development indicators for the regions under study. (EH)