Pasquale TRIDICO: “Integration should include intellectual mobility”

Pasquale Tridico holds PhD in Economics and is a lecturer of European Union Economics at the University of Rome “La Sapienza.” Besides, he is a lecturer of Labor Economics and Macroeconomics at the University of Rome III. Within an EU project he is cooperating with a number of European universities, studying the socioeconomic model of development of Europe. Currently he is Secretary General of the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEU). His major research interests are focused on institutional economics, economy of transitional period and European integration. In 2004 he obtained PhD degree in Economics at the University of Rome III, having defended a thesis entitled “Institutional Change and Economic Performance in Transition Economies: the case of Poland.” In November 2012 Prof. Tridico is having a scheduled meeting at the Taras Shevchenko National University, where he will present his new book Institutions, Human Development and Economic Growth in Transition Economies (Palgrave: London, 2011) on the changes and development in former communist countries, including Ukraine. The author hopes to continue his cooperation with this university and other higher educational establishments of Ukraine and sign bilateral agreements. During his stay in Ukraine Mr. Tridico answered several questions of The Day.

Mr. Tridico, both Ukraine and Poland belong to the subject of your research. You must have heard that Ukrainian economic situation is often compared with the Polish economy 15-20 years ago. In your opinion, is Polish scenario of “transformation” efficient for our country? Which method will correspond better to the reforms in Ukraine?

“Speaking about the transition from planned to market economy, the first index we take into consideration is the country’s GDP at the beginning of the transitional period compared with the current one. If we take Poland, in 1989 (the year when the transformation began) its GDP was 100 units, and today its GDP is about 170. Thus Poland has increased its GDP approximately by 70 percent since 1989, which is not very much, but it is one of the best results among the former communist economies. China’s transformation has been much more efficient: since 1989 the GDP in this country has grown by almost 300 percent. For Ukraine the transition has been more dramatic, it is one of the worst among the former communist economies: from the initial level of 100 GDP units in 1989 (Poland had the same) to current approximately 75. Ukraine is not alone in this, as this camp also includes Moldova, Georgia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the whole, the problems in these countries have been caused by political rather than economic factors. The transition was hard, slow, unstable or inefficiently orchestrated. The society is pervaded with corruption. The middle class is a tiny stratum between the rich and the poor, as a result civic society and stable democracy have not emerged. All this cannot be helpful for economic transformations, corresponding reforms have not been activated, and economic development in fact has not taken place. However, today the most acute problems of the former Soviet republics include high political tension and fragmentation, expansion of oligarchic economy, corruption, and inefficiency of the rule of law, and apart from that the inertness of the changes in society. Plus the lack of great changes in heavy industry, agriculture, and military sector. All these things, aggravated by the strong political dependence from Russia, which does not act in favor of the reforms, make the transition to market economy and stable process of development really hard. Therefore, in my opinion, the way to better development for Ukraine today lies through overcoming the abovementioned factors.”

You have lectured in European universities. Besides, you have an experience of organizing conferences and economic schools. What can you say about the prospects of cooperation with Ukrainian colleagues in the sphere of education?

“Cultural achievements, education, innovation, as well as international exchanges are a key to success during the transition period. Without doubt, civil society, democracy, economic development and improvement of education do bring about progress. With the help of cultural changes young people can study and acquire new experience, create new socioeconomic models, better practices, and implement them at home, or at least push Ukraine forward to implementation of transformations. They can do what the previous generations failed to do in terms of reforms.

“In the same way many people in Ukraine stand good opportunities to study, in particular, in the EU border countries. The EU has numerous exchange programs which stimulate higher mobility of the youth, and Ukraine should take an active part in these projects. I will emphasize that such border countries as Poland can have a crucial importance for giving Ukrainian students an opportunity to study in the EU and be participants of such programs as Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci, SOCRATES, etc.

“The EU policy should be more oriented at helping such countries as Ukraine, which I think can become a new member of the EU in the near future. University exchanges allow people to discover new cultures, which also make ideas circulate. This makes the progress more rapid. At the same time Ukrainian universities should be more open for bilateral agreements with EU members, so that Ukrainian students could study in the EU and use the opportunity to improve their knowledge. Indisputably, Ukrainian professors and university researchers should cooperate with their fellows in the West. Of course, economic resources for Ukrainian educational establishments may be limited, but this is possible to overcome.”

This year you have come for the second time to the Crimea for vacation and continue to discover our country. Probably, you have shaped your opinion about Ukraine before. I wonder what do Italians, for example, tell about Ukraine?

“I like to travel across Eastern Europe, first of all because I know the sights of Western Europe and I want to know more. The second reason is that having started to work on my doctor’s thesis in 2002 I took part in an educational journey to Poland and Russia. Later I learned Polish and made the empirical part of my candidate’s paper in Poland. My research interests are focused on studying the integration and development of Europe, and Ukraine should be part of this integration. Traveling is of crucial importance for boosting mutual understanding and knowledge about each other between Ukraine and Italy, and the EU on the whole. Sometimes people in the West know very little about Eastern countries, and this does not help integration. In Italy and EU on the whole there are many Ukrainian migrants who are appreciated as workers. However, this is not sufficient to help integration. Integration should include intellectual mobility. In Rome, in Europe’s largest university “La Sapienza,” we have a very good department of Slavonic studies, where students study Ukrainian language, literature, and history. I teach there, so I had an opportunity to meet Prof. Oxana Pachlovska, who is a real professor in promoting all things Ukrainian. We need more initiatives of this kind. We need to graduate more masters and doctors in the field of Ukrainian studies. To realize this we need additional resources, government officials, and international organizations should provide funding and support for the projects of this kind, scholarships, and cooperation programs.”