Dr Aleksandar R. Miletić

Research project at the Kolleg

The Retreat from a Market Economy in East-Central and Southeast Europe, 1918-1928. Comparative perspectives of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia.
This research project focuses on the comparison of specific features of the state-interventionist practices in the four countries during the period under review. The study of the collapse of the free market economy is carried out in the particular domains of 1) state involvement in the housing market, 2) trade restrictions, and 3) migration controls. Changes in these economic sectors proved to be among the most important deviations from the prewar market economy standards in these countries. The project's title does not suggest that an ideal laissez-faire or market economy form of capitalism actually existed in the region, or anywhere in the world before 1914, rather that there was a general trend departing from conventional rules of the market economy which were established in the decades preceding the war. A new developmental typology points to the degree of change indicated by a cross-country and cross-regional comparison. Specific attention is dedicated to the way particular social groups were affected by these changes and the ways they advocated for and protected their interests. The project will add to our knowledge of the global transition from war to peace in the interwar period by integrating studies of an economic periphery into a broader European and global perspective.

Main areas of research

•     Southeast and East-Central European social and economic history during the interwar period
•     Control over the movement of people
•     Housing rent controls
•     Price controls and trade restrictions