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on Transition Economics |
| By: | Patricia McGrath; ; |
| Abstract: | The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland all experienced an initial reduction in the number of industries and an increase in unemployment, once they moved to a market driven economy. Over time the unemployment problem reduced in significance though Poland still experiences high levels to date. Industries sprung up in the private sector in all three countries which counterbalanced the drop in state enterprises. Private sector industries all reported easy access to credit once the business set up while firms with head offices overseas tended to use the home country for borrowing purposes. For these companies, the most significant feature of financial deregulation in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland was that of freedom of capital movement, which increased both the level of business and investment opportunities. Results show that financial deregulation led to industrial development in all three countries. Tests to indicate the impact of industrial production on economic growth, show that for the three countries industrial production caused economic growth. This was a uni-directional causality. |
| Keywords: | Transition Economies, Industrial Development, Financial Deregulation, Economic Growth, Eastern Europe |
| JEL: | E E23 F43 |
| Date: | 2006–02–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wdi:papers:2006-818&r=tra |
| By: | Marina Bakanova (World Bank, Minsk); Saul Estrin (London Business School and IZA Bonn); Igor Pelipas (Institute of Privatisation and Management, Minsk); Sergei Pukovich (Institute of Privatisation and Management, Minsk) |
| Abstract: | We explore the impact of privatization and the entry of new firms on enterprise performance in Belarus, a transition economy in which reform and market-orientated institutional development has been limited. We hypothesize that private ownership will enhance company performance, measured in a variety of ways including profitability and capacity to export to the West, and that newly created firms will perform better than state-owned ones. Our work is based on a large enterprise level survey which includes state-owned firms, privatized companies and newly created enterprises. The data refute both hypotheses. We conclude that this is probably because the institutional environment has not evolved sufficiently from the socialist era to permit free competition and effective governance by new owners. |
| Keywords: | enterprise restructuring, privatization, transition, Belarus |
| JEL: | P2 P31 L1 |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp2148&r=tra |
| By: | Sanjaya Lall and Manuel Albaladejo (QEH) |
| Abstract: | There is growing concern in Southeast and East Asia about the competitive threat posed by China’s burgeoning exports, exacerbated by its accession to the WTO. The threat is not confined to labour-intensive products but spans the whole technological and skill range. At the same time, China is rapidly raising its imports from the region, and it is not clear whether its burgeoning exports will damage its neighbours. We examine the dimensions of China’s competitive threat in the 1990s, benchmarking competitive performance by technology and market, and finds that market share losses are so far mainly in low technology products, with Japan being the most vulnerable market. We analyse market share changes and highlight product groups that are directly or indirectly exposed to a competitive threat. We examine intra-regional trade and find that China and its neighbours are raising high technology exports in tandem: the nature of the international production systems involved lead to complementarity rather than confrontation. China is thus acting as an engine of export growth for its neighbours in terms of direct trade. However, this will change as China moves up the value chain and takes on the activities that have driven East Asian export growth |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qeh:qehwps:qehwps110&r=tra |
| By: | Sanjaya Lall (QEH) |
| Abstract: | There is growing concern in Southeast and East Asia about the competitive threat posed by China’s burgeoning exports, exacerbated by its accession to the WTO. The threat is not confined to labour-intensive products but spans the whole technological and skill range. At the same time, China is rapidly raising its imports from the region, and it is not clear whether its burgeoning exports will damage its neighbours. We examine the dimensions of China’s competitive threat in the 1990s, benchmarking competitive performance by technology and market, and finds that market share losses are so far mainly in low technology products, with Japan being the most vulnerable market. We analyse market share changes and highlight product groups that are directly or indirectly exposed to a competitive threat. We examine intra-regional trade and find that China and its neighbours are raising high technology exports in tandem: the nature of the international production systems involved lead to complementarity rather than confrontation. China is thus acting as an engine of export growth for its neighbours in terms of direct trade. However, this will change as China moves up the value chain and takes on the activities that have driven East Asian export growth |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qeh:qehwps:qehwps111&r=tra |
| By: | Susan J. linz; Linda K. Good; Patricia Huddleston |
| Abstract: | Despite unanimous agreement in the existing literature that morale influences employee performance, no well-defined measure of morale exists. Our study develops a robust measure of morale and focuses on the factors that influence morale among Russian workers. Survey data were collected from Russian employees at two different points in time, 1995 and 2002, in five Russian cities. Among the workers participating in our study, expectation of receiving a desired reward contributes to high morale, with expected monetary rewards having a larger influence than expected non-monetary rewards, but praise for a job well done and a feeling of accomplishment also contribute positively to employee morale. There is a significant correlation between positive attitudes toward work and morale, and a positive correlation between performance assessment and morale. Demographic characteristics (age and gender) have no discernable influence on morale when controls are included for work experience. |
| Keywords: | Morale, Russia, Expected rewards, Motivation, Performance |
| JEL: | P23 J28 J33 |
| Date: | 2006–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wdi:papers:2006-816&r=tra |
| By: | Sanjaya Lall (QEH) and John Weiss |
| Abstract: | This paper explores China's competitive threat to Latin America in trade in manufactures. The direct threat in exports to third country markets appears small: LAC's trade structure is largely complementary to that of China. In bilateral trade, several LAC countries are increasing primary and resource-based exports to China. However, the pattern of trade, with LAC specializing increasingly in resource-based products and China in manufactures, seems worrying. Given cumulative capability building, China's success in increasingly technology-based products with strong learning externalities can place it on a higher growth path than specialisation in 'simpler' goods, as in LAC. China may thus affect LAC's technological upgrading in exports and industrial production. The issue is not so much current competition as the 'spaces' open for LAC in the emerging technology-based world. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qeh:qehwps:qehwps120&r=tra |
| By: | Igor Filatotchev; Natalia Isachenkova; Tomasz Mickiewicz |
| Abstract: | Using data on 157 large companies in Poland and Hungary this paper employs a Bayesian structural equation modeling to examine interrelationships between corporate governance, managers’ independence from owners in terms of strategic decision-making, exporting and performance. It is found that managers’ independence is positively associated with firms’ financial performance and exporting. In turn, the extent of managers’ independence is negatively associated with ownership concentration, but positively associated with the percentage of foreign directors on the firm’s board. We interpret these results as an indication that (i) concentrated owners tend to constrain managerial autonomy at the cost of the firm’s internationalization and performance, (ii) board participation of foreign stakeholders, on the other hand, enhances the firm’s export orientation and performance by encouraging executives’ decision-making autonomy. |
| Keywords: | corporate governance, strategic independence, exporting, performance |
| JEL: | G32 G34 L21 L22 L25 P31 |
| Date: | 2005–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wdi:papers:2005-805&r=tra |
| By: | Maria Jaschok (QEH) |
| Abstract: | The article, based on reflections from on-going ethnographic research in central China's Muslim and Catholic female communities, links indigenous notions of 'modernity' with religious identity and changing gender politics. Maria Jaschok argues that a growing de-centralization of the Chinese state apparatus and the concomitant emergence of civil space, however tentative or circumscribed, contribute to a society in which sources and processes of 'liberation', of the nation and of its women, are no longer axiomatic. Moreover, political tensions may bring in their wake volatility and uncertainty but, so Jaschok maintains, these also engender opportunities for aspirations, motivations, practises, and social engagement which are religiously infused! A modern, progressive, believing Chinese female citizen, assertive of her identity - it appears this may no longer be quite the oxymoron it once was when Maoist developmentalist prescriptions monopolised China's political culture. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:qeh:qehwps:qehwps124&r=tra |
| By: | Yener Kandogan; ; |
| Abstract: | Since McCallum’s (1995) finding of surprisingly high border effect on trade between US and Canada, there have been a number of studies on other parts of the world, and improvements made to the gravity model to accurately measure this effect. This paper suggests some other modifications to the model, and applies it to a region of the world that presents a distinctly interesting case. Changes in border effects of formerly socialist countries in Central and East Europe, and countries in the former Soviet Union are analyzed during 1976-2002 at country and sectoral levels, and also with respect to blocs of countries. A discussion on cross-country variations in border effects follows the computations. |
| Keywords: | Gravity models, integration, disintegration |
| JEL: | F14 F15 P20 P33 |
| Date: | 2006–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wdi:papers:2006-821&r=tra |
| By: | Ruoen Ren; Haitao Zheng |
| Abstract: | Based on our research work of 1998, we discuss Chinese manufacturing performance from multilateral perspective in 1980-2004 through performing the comparison of labour productivity between China and its trade partners so as to better understand the problems of RMB exchange rate. We talk about Chinese manufacturing competitiveness through the multilateral comparison of PPPs, relative price levels, labor productivity and ULCs, with the PPPs being standardized according to the base year 1997. All of the results are compared with those in the year 1987. The following findings are presented: in Chinese manufacturing, the various PPPs in the base year 1997 are approximately 3.7 yuan/international $. After the middle 1980s, the relative price turns the lowest in all the five investigation countries. Furthermore, it is still trending downward. ULC is declining albeit the fluctuations. In the 1980s, there is no "catch-up" rapid growth in labor productivity. However, after 1992, it has shown a distinct "catch-up", though with the low level. |
| Keywords: | Multilateral comparison, Manufacturing, International competitiveness |
| JEL: | O47 O57 F14 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:hstdps:d06-170&r=tra |
| By: | Andrey M. Boyarshinov (Computational Mathematics and Mechanics Perm State Technical University) |
| Date: | 2006–07–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sce:scecfa:127&r=tra |
| By: | Vassileva, Iglika; Vincelette, Gallina Andronova |
| Abstract: | The paper presents a fiscal estimate of Bulgaria ' s perspective European Union (EU) membership. The projected EU funds have two distinct effects: first, there is the overall effect on the balance of payments of the country; and second, there is the pure effect on the national budget. The paper concludes that Bulgaria is likely to benefit from large net inflows of resources of an average of 3.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007-09. In contrast, its fiscal position is expected to deteriorate by 1.6 percent of GDP on average in 2007-09 if no expenditure restructuring of the fiscal framework is carried out. The expected deterioration of the public finances related to EU accession would be due to co-financing requirements, national contributions to the EU budget, and possible full pre-financing of the EU direct payments to Bulgarian farmers in the first year of accession. However, the above expenditures will be partly offset by the budgetary compensation allocated out of the EU budget, savings from agricultural subsidies, and shifting of certain public expenditures to Cohesion Fund-supported projects. |
| Keywords: | Economic Theory & Research,Technology Industry,Gender and Law,Markets and Market Access,Rural Development Knowledge & Information Systems |
| Date: | 2006–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3962&r=tra |
| By: | Daxue Wang (PhD program IESE Business School) |
| Keywords: | Cross-Autocorrelation; Segmented Stock Markets; Dual-Listed Stocks; Market-Wide and Portfolio-Specific Information. |
| JEL: | G14 G18 |
| Date: | 2006–07–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sce:scecfa:182&r=tra |
| By: | Anna Lipinska (IDEA Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) |
| Keywords: | monetary regime choice, real exchange rate dynamics, accession economies |
| JEL: | F41 E52 |
| Date: | 2006–07–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sce:scecfa:243&r=tra |
| By: | Tiongson, Erwin R.; Pushak, Taras; Ostojic, Dejan; Mori, Hideki; Bouton, Lawrence; Baclajanschi, Iaroslav |
| Abstract: | In January 2006 the price of natural gas supplied to Moldova increased from $80 to $110 per thousand cubic meters (mcm). Prices may increase further in the near future, putting additional pressure on the economy and leading to adverse effects on the poorest households. This study examines the potential impact of higher energy prices on the economy of Moldova by simulating the likely macroeconomic consequences of recent and future price increases. Moreover, it estimates the direct impact on individual households using data drawn from the 2004 Household Budget Survey. It assesses the distributional implications of the price shock, noting how the social impact may vary depending on the intensity of energy use, geographic location, and the relative share of energy in household expenditure. The results suggest that energy price changes could dampen economic growth while putting additional strains on the current account deficit. The impact on the poorest households could be significant and protecting them may require resources in the amount of 0.7 to 1.7 percent of GDP. This study identifies possible policy responses to dampen the shock of the energy price increase and to promote the longer-term objective of reducing energy vulnerability. |
| Keywords: | Energy Production and Transportation,Environment and Energy Efficiency,Energy and Environment,Markets and Market Access,Transport and Environment |
| Date: | 2006–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3960&r=tra |
| By: | Sergio Salis; ; |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of foreign acquisition in 1997 on the performances of a sample of Slovenian manufacturing firms. It uses the propensity score-matching estimation technique combined with the difference-in-differences approach to control for the potential bias arising from the non-random selection of acquired firms (endogeneity of foreign ownership). After confirming that foreign investors acquire the most productive firms in Slovenia, it shows that the productivity of such firms subsequently increases as a result of foreign takeover. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that foreign firms transfer their technology to Slovenian affiliates. |
| Keywords: | Foreign acquisition, productivity, propensity score, matching estimator |
| JEL: | F23 D21 C14 |
| Date: | 2006–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wdi:papers:2006-803&r=tra |
| By: | Olga Shemyakina (Department of Economics, University of Southern California) |
| Abstract: | From 1992 to 1998 Tajikistan was embroiled in one of the most devastating civil conflicts in the Former Soviet Union region. I examine the effect of this armed conflict on the schooling outcomes of individuals using two empirical strategies. To identify exposure to conflict by individuals I use data from the 1999 and 2003 Tajik Living Standards Surveys. The 1999 data suggest that homes of 6.8 percent of the households were damaged during the conflict and that at least 40% of 2000 households lived in a community where such damage occurred. My results imply that exposure to the conflict, as measured by past damage to household dwelling, had a significant negative effect on the enrollment of girls of ages 12-15, and little, or no, effect on enrollment of boys and younger girls. Furthermore, I find that girls who were of school age during the conflict and lived in conflict affected regions were i) 13% less likely to complete mandatory schooling as compared to girls who had the opportunity to complete their schooling before the conflict started, and ii) 7% less likely to complete school than girls of the same age group who lived in regions relatively unaffected by conflict. Thus, the armed conflict in Tajikistan may have created significant regional disparities in the education attained by girls. Interestingly, these disparities were not explained by unavailability or destruction of schools and other education related infrastructure in the regions affected by conflict. |
| Date: | 2006–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:12&r=tra |
| By: | Ouarda Merrouche |
| Abstract: | The economic impact of war may be visible in the long run and particularly its impact on human capital. I use unique district level data on landmine contamination intensity in Cambodia combined with individual survey data to evaluate the long run cost of Cambodia’s 30 years war (1970-1998) on education levels and earnings. These effects are identified using difference-in-differences (DD) and instrumental variables (IV) estimators. In the DD framework I exploit two sources of variation in an individual’s exposure to the conflict: her age in 1970 and landmine contamination intensity in her district of residence. The IV specification uses an indicator of distance to the Thai border-average district fluency in Thai- as an exogenous source of variation in landmine contamination intensity. I show that young individuals who had not yet attended school before 1970 received less education (relative to the older cohort) and this effect was higher in regions where conflict has been more intense. However, immediately after the war there are no visible effects on earnings. I argue that the destruction of physical capital is the major factor that drives down the returns to education in Cambodia post-war. |
| JEL: | O1 O55 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:ifsewp:06/11&r=tra |