This paper aims to evaluate the central bank reforms in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet countries through a comparative meta-analysis between studies of transition economies and those of other developed and developing economies that empirically examined the effect of central bank independence (CBI) on inflation. The results of a meta-synthesis using a total of 282 estimates collected from existing literature indicates that both transition and non-transition studies have successfully identified a negative relationship between CBI and inflation. Moreover, our meta-regression analysis suggested that the choice of estimator, inflation variable type, degree of freedom, and quality level of the study strongly affected the empirical results concerning transition economies. We also found that no significant difference exists between the two types of studies in terms of both effect size and statistical significance so long as we control for the degree of freedom and quality level of the study, implying that the socioeconomic setting of the society has so substantially developed in transition economies that the relation between CBI and its disinflation effect is observed in the same way as in non-transition economies. JEL classification numbers: E31, E58, G18, P24, P34

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The present study discusses the two problems in Putin's Russia, namely that of protective trade measures and that of social disparities, both of which have been attracting attention from a lot of researchers and journalists under the circumstance of the Trump phenomenon. Therefore it examines the problems in comparison with the situation of the two problems in the USA under the Trump administration. For the first problem, it argues that Russia is rather faithful to the rule of the game of international system, while the Trump administration has an inclination to destroy it. However, there is a kind of deception in this attitude of Russia because it applies double standards when it treats trade problems with the USA, Western Europe and Japan on the one hand and the problems with the former Soviet states on the other. It emphasizes that Trump's trade policies would play a role that gives an indulgence to the double standards of Russia. For the second problem, we argue that the residents in Russia are divided into small interest groups as a result of the survival of the "Soviet social system". What ties together the people there is the patriotism of the citizens surrounded by "enemies". Also in the United States, a specific income group does not support Trump's regime, but a wider cross-hierarchical ideology, "anti-intellectualism" supports it. According to our view it is important to pay an attention to the relationship between the hierarchical structure and the patriotism or ideology in order to estimate the sustainability of the both regimes in the future.

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