also in a post-colonial situation, in a heavily regulated Asian-style economy, in a Latin American post-dictatorship, or even in a somehow economically underdeveloped country in Africa. In 2000, the IMF listed the following countries with transition economies: 1 — World Bank assessment In addition, in 2002, the World Bank defined Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (later Serbia and Montenegro) as transition economies. In 2009, the World Bank included Kosovo in the list of transition economies. Some World Bank studies also include Mongolia. According to the IMF, Iran is in transition to a market economy, demonstrating early stages of a transition economy. The eight first-wave accession countries, which joined the European Union on 1 May 2004 (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia) and the two second-wave accession countries that joined on 1 January 2007 (Romania and Bulgaria), have completed the transition process. According to the World Bank, "the transition is over" for the 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007. It can be also understood as all countries of the Eastern Bloc. Branch of economics Transition economics is a special branch of economics dealing with the transformation of a planned economy to a market economy. It has become especially important after the collapse of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe. Transition economics investigates how an economy should reform itself to endorse capitalism and democracy. There are usually two sides: one which argues for a rapid transformation and one which argues for a gradual approach. Gérard Roland's book Transition and Economics. Politics, Markets and Firms (MIT Press 2000) gives a good overview of the field. A more recent overview is provided in Transition Economies: Political Economy in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia by Martin Myant and Jan Drahokoupil. Comparative tables Two extremes: Romania and Kyrgyzstan At the beginning of the 1990s, Communist leaders remained in power in Romania and - with the exception of Kyrgyzstan - in Central Asia. These two countries were both exceptions within their respective regions: Romania was the only one of the 6 former non-Soviet Warsaw Pact countries to opt for gradual instead of radical reform, while Kyrgyzstan was the only Central Asian country and the only one in the CIS other than Russia to implement radical reform. According to the EBRD's Structural Reform Index, a country can be defined as a "full-fledged market economy" once