Venezuela’s economy post-Maduro: some lessons from history

It’s still far too early to say if Venezuela’s post-Maduro government will seek to reverse the past few decades of economic mismanagement. But if it does, the experience from countries in Eastern Europe and Latin America in the late 1980s and 1990s offers some lessons. They faced chaotic initial years of transition, followed by recoveries at widely varying speeds. Those that fared best (most notably Poland) generally didn’t have deeply entrenched command and control economies to begin with – which applies to Venezuela now. But they also undertook economic reforms quickly, accompanied by institutional reforms – which look much less likely to be the case in Venezuela.