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on Confederation of Independent States |
| By: | Wernstedt, Kris (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | Abstract Environmental managers in Russia face severe problems, both from Soviet-era and continuing environmental degradation and due to the weakness of current institutions with responsibilities for environmental protection. This paper draws on surveys, a case study of water pollution, and workshops on Russian environmental decisionmaking to explore prospects for environmental improvements. Using concepts from the regulatory reform literature on next-generation environmental policies, it focuses on the use of market incentives, the construction of a civil society, and community involvement, and emphasizes that Russian nongovernmental organizations may have a particularly important role to play in improving environmental management. Solidifying their legal base, coalition-building skills, and capability to conduct independent, pragmatic policy analyses would enhance their contribution. |
| Keywords: | Russia, environmental management, non-governmental organizations, water quality, Siberia, transitioning countries, next-generation environmental policies |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-02-04&r=cis |
| By: | Bakytzhanova Zhuldyz |
| Abstract: | Empirical studies (Bacon, 1991; Peltzman, 2000) show that output prices tend to respond faster to input price increases than to decreases. This paper finds out such asymmetry in the fuel market of Moscow and analyzes the influence of companies' and market characteristics on asymmetric response. The conclusion is that different mechanisms of the phenomenon, including tacit collusion and consumer search, probably coexist in the Moscow retail gasoline market. |
| Keywords: | Russia, Kazakhstan, market concentration, gasoline, asymmetric response |
| JEL: | C23 L11 L13 L81 |
| Date: | 2005–12–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eer:wpalle:05-18e&r=cis |
| By: | Wernstedt, Kris (Resources For the Future) |
| Abstract: | In common with other areas throughout the Russian Federation, western Siberia faces formidable environmental pollution, a problem that in part is the legacy of the highly centralized Soviet era when meeting production quotas was the raison d'être for many managers of economic enterprises. In this region, over the last thirty years the near singular focus on short term oil production has led to severe contamination of the area's surface and groundwater supplies, threatening both human and ecological health. At the same time, revenues from continued oil extraction may provide the means to address some of the environmental problems. In light of the struggling economy and potential political instability, however, it is particularly critical that authorities prioritize environmental investments, as well as cultivate public support for such investments. This paper reports on a recent investigation of this problem by a team of American and Russian scientists, under the sponsorship of the U.S. National Research Council, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the Russian Academy of Sciences. The chief recommendation from that investigation is that the region develop an environmental program based on human health risk assessment and management. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-97-14&r=cis |
| By: | J. David Brown (Heriot-Watt University and CEU Labor Project); John S. Earle (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and Central European University); Almos Telegdy (Central European University and Institute of Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the effects of privatization on firm-level wages and employment in four transition economies. Contrary to workers' fears, our fixed effect and random trend estimates imply little effect of domestic privatization, except for a slight negative effect in Russia, and they provide some evidence of positive foreign effects on both wages and employment in all four countries. The negligible employment impact of domestic privatization results from effects on efficiency and scale that are large, positive, but offsetting in Hungary and Romania, and from small effects of both types in Russia and Ukraine. The positive employment and wage bill consequences of foreign ownership result from a substantial scale-expansion effect that dominates the efficiency effect. |
| Keywords: | privatization, employment, wages, foreign ownership, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Ukraine |
| JEL: | D21 G34 J23 J31 L33 P31 |
| Date: | 2005–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upj:weupjo:05-125&r=cis |