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Using the database of eight Central and Eastern European transition economies compiled from the World Bank collection of World Development Indicators, the authors examine the relationship between high contract-intensive money as an indicator of contractual and property rights (or a general measure of the quality of governance and institutions) and performance of several macroeconomic indicators (GDP growth, FDI to GDP ratio, employment rate etc.) over the period from 1990 to 2011. The Pearson's correlation coefficients were used to determine the strength of the relationships. Additionally, the authors used multiple and simple regression analyses with CIM being an exploratory variable. The period averages of CIM for individual countries were the highest in Slovenia, whereas the lowest in Latvia and Lithuania. Cross-country dispersion of this ratio has narrowed, especially from 2003 onwards. Overall, our results provide little empirical support for the notion that the better performance of the national economy is strongly related to the better enforcement of property rights. There was a statistically significant positive association between CIM and economic growth rate (Hungary), employment rate (the Czech Republic), FDI (Estonia); household consumption spending (the Czech Republic and Slovenia), new business density (Hungary) and gross fixed capital formation by private sector (the whole group of countries), and negative association with long-term unemployment (Slovakia). The multiple regression results show unexpected negative significant relationship between CIM and economic growth rates in Latvia, Slovakia and in the whole group of the countries.
