The striking increase in mortality rates in Russia in the early 1990s occur
red simultaneously with the government's erratic attempts to introduce mark
er reforms. Other transition economies, such as Poland and the Czech Republ
ic, avoided increases in death rates while they implemented rapid and deep
reforms. Is there a link between mortality and the speed or depths of refor
ms, as suggested by other researchers [e.g. Sachs (1996) American Economic
Review 86(2), 128-233]? This paper uses aggregate data on 22 transition eco
nomies for 1989-94 to investigate this question. While the relationship bet
ween an index of reform progress and death rates is ambiguous, death rates
in these countries are correlated with measures of reform success, such as
GDP growth and the inflation rate. Higher crime rates and higher unemployme
nt rates are also related to larger increases in death rates. (C) 1998 Else
vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.