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on Transition Economics |
| By: | Ito, Seiro; Watanabe, Mariko; Yanagawa, Noriyuki |
| Keywords: | Incomplete contract, Trade credit, Spillover of technology, FDI, Government-owned firms, China, Foreign investments, Credit, Small and medium-scale enterprises |
| JEL: | G2 K0 O5 P31 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper99&r=tra |
| By: | Ichiro Iwasaki |
| Abstract: | The statistically typical form of the board of directors in a Russian joint-stock corporation can be characterized as an open managerial supervisory body with a balanced membership of executive corporate officers and outsider directors. In reality, however, there are only a very limited number of Russian firms with this gaverageh type of corporate boards. The vast majority of Russian joint-stock corporations are either governed by a board of directors with an extremely high outsider directorship or completely dominated by insider directors. Behind this polarization in board composition lie heated struggles for supremacy among management, stockholders, and outsider directors. In stark contrast to corporate systems in developed countries, which ensure effective managerial discipline through the spontaneous systemization of a well-balanced corporate governance structure, those in Russia, which are entrenched by deep-seated mutual distrust between insiders and outsiders, tend to cause excessively time- and energy-consuming conflicts. In this sense, the distinctive adaptability of the bargaining model in transitional Russia reflects the underdevelopment of its social and economic system. |
| Keywords: | Russia, board formation, endogeneity, agency theory, bargaining model |
| JEL: | D21 D23 G34 K22 L22 P31 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:hitcei:2007-1&r=tra |
| By: | Kui-Wai Li (City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR); Tung Liu (Department of Economics, Ball State University); Lihong Yun (City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the productivity change of the thirty provinces in China’s post-reform economy. The productivity change is estimated from the stochastic frontier model, in which the maximum likelihood estimation is applied to an augmented logarithmic production function incorporated with a human capital variable. The empirical results show technical progress is the main contributor to productivity growth and the scale of economy became important in recent years, but technical efficiency has edged downwards in the sample period. We also found that the physical capital is the important factor for economic growth and human capital is inadequate even though it has a positive and significant effect on growth. The relevant policy implication for a sustainable post-reform China economy is the need to promote human capital accumulation and improvement in technical efficiency. |
| Keywords: | technical efficiency, technical progress, human capital, China economy |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bsu:wpaper:200701&r=tra |
| By: | Jérôme Héricourt (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - [CNRS : UMR8174] - [Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I], EQUIPPE - Université de Lille - [Université des Sciences et Technologie de Lille - Lille I]); Sandra Poncet (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - [CNRS : UMR8174] - [Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I], CEPII - Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales - [Centre d'analyse stratégique]) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we analyze whether incoming foreign investment in China plays an important role in alleviating domestic firms' credit constraints. Access to external finance is a crucial determinant of business expansion. Using firm-level data on 2,200 domestic companies for the period 1999-2002, we investigate the extent to wich firms are financially constrainted and whether direct foreign investment relaxes financing constraints of firms. When we split domestic firms into public and private firms, we find that public firms' investment decisions are not sensitive to debt ratios or the cost of debt. Nor is there any evidence that public firms are affected by foreign firms presence. We interpret this as evidence in support of the notion of a soft budget constraint for public firms. In contrast, private domestic firms appear more credit constrained than state-owned firms but their fincancing constraints tend to ease in a context of abundant foreign investment. |
| Keywords: | Financial constraint, corporate finance, Foreign Direct Investment. |
| Date: | 2007–05–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00144621_v1&r=tra |
| By: | Núria Rodríguez Planas; Jacob Benus |
| Abstract: | We evaluate the presence of effects from joining one of four active labour market programs in Romania in the late 1990s compared to the no-program state. Using rich follow-up survey data and propensity score matching, we find that three programs (training and retraining, self-employment assistance, and employment and relocation services) had success in improving participants' economic outcomes and were cost-beneficial from society?s perspective. In contrast, public employment was found detrimental for the employment prospects of its participants. |
| Keywords: | Active labour market programs, propensity score matching, transition economies, and net social benefits |
| JEL: | J24 J64 J68 |
| Date: | 2007–05–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aub:autbar:699.07&r=tra |
| By: | Sylvie Demurger (GATE - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - [CNRS : UMR5824] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines]); Martin Fournier (GATE - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - [CNRS : UMR5824] - [Université Lumière - Lyon II] - [Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines]); Yang Weiyong (University of International Business and Economics - [University of International Business and Economics]) |
| Abstract: | This article illustrates the impact of changes related to market reforms and environmental policies on the economic structure in rural China by providing a comparative analysis of several villages in a poor township in Beijing municipality. Two main concomitant phenomena are affecting agricultural and non-agricultural choices in the studied area. First, the introduction of market mechanisms is encouraging local population to engage in new activities that are closer to local comparative advantages. Second, rural households are facing new constraints in the form of environmental protection measures, which have weakened traditional insurance channels provided by forest resources and cattle stock. Drawing on household-level survey data and interviews with village heads conducted in ten villages of Labagoumen township in December 2003, this article analyzes households decisions in response to market reforms and environmental constraints. We find large disparities both between villages and households in the diversification process and discuss the reasons of observed inertia in the region, most households still heavily relying on corn production. |
| Keywords: | agrarian change ; Environmental protection ; Income-source diversification ; rural China |
| Date: | 2007–05–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:papers:halshs-00144899_v1&r=tra |
| By: | Alena Bicakova; Jiri Slacalek; Michal Slavik |
| Abstract: | We investigate the fiscal implications of the changes in personal income tax implemented in the Czech Republic in January 2006. In addition to evaluating the direct effect of this tax reform, our analysis takes into account its employment effect on the government budget due to individuals entering or leaving employment. We first estimate the probability of working (labor supply) as a function of the effective net wage and then simulate the impact of the changes in paid taxes and received benefits on employment. We find that a 10 percent rise in the net wage increases the probability of working by 0.55 and 0.18 percentage points for women and men respectively. These estimates suggest that the employment effect is unlikely to substantially alleviate the fall in net budget revenues. We predict that, for the sub-population of prime age employees, net government revenues decline by roughly 8 billion Czech korunas (CZK) as a consequence of the implemented income tax cuts. The employment effect counteracts the decline by only CZK 0.4 billion. The stimulating effect of the tax reform on employment is reduced by the current benefit system: the incentive to work due to the higher after-tax wage is partially offset by the fall in social benefits once people start working. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal effects, labor supply, personal income tax, tax reforms. |
| JEL: | E62 J31 |
| Date: | 2006–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cnb:wpaper:2006/7&r=tra |
| By: | Valentova, Marie (CEPS/INSTEAD); Krizova, Iva (Masaryk University Brno); Katrnak, Tomas (Masaryk University Brno) |
| Abstract: | The main aims of this article are to conduct a cross-national comparison of levels of occupational gender segregation and to examine the relation between the level of occupational gender segregation and gender segregation in education (both vertical and horizontal). The analyses include 18 European countries covered by the European Social Survey (ESS) conducted in 2004. The comparison pays a special attention to the position of the Czech Republic and differences and similarities between the EU-15 countries and the new EU member states, i.e. post-socialist countries. |
| Keywords: | gender segregation; occupational segregation ; cross-national segregatio |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:irs:iriswp:2007-04&r=tra |
| By: | Jan M. Hoem (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany); Dora Kostova (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study entry into the first conjugal union among young women in Bulgaria in 1980 through 2004 based on data from the national Gender and Generations Survey conducted in 2004. We use an extension of piecewise-constant hazard regression to analyze jointly the transition into a cohabitational union and directly into marriage. This extension will allow us to compare the relative risks of covariates across the two competing transitions, a comparison which infeasible otherwise. In this manner we find, among many other things, that women in the Roma sub-population have more than twice as high a tendency to start a cohabitation as to start a marriage at each age, ceteris paribus, while for ethnic Bulgarian women the relationship is more like 1.5. We also find that a pregnancy leads to a dramatic increase in the rate of both kinds of union formation; the increase is by a factor of over 20 for marriage formation and “only” a factor of around 10 for entry into cohabitation, again ceteris paribus. The standardized marriage intensity for non-pregnant women without children has fallen strongly by a factor of more than six over the period of investigation; the standardized rate of cohabitation has been much more stable and has only fallen by some forty percent, mostly toward the end of the period. These features have not appeared in previous analyses. |
| Keywords: | Bulgaria |
| JEL: | J1 Z0 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dem:wpaper:wp-2007-020&r=tra |
| By: | Nguyen, Ngoc Anh; Pham, Quang Ngoc; Nguyen, Dinh Chuc; Nguyen, Duc Nhat |
| Abstract: | Innovation has long been considered an important factor for creating and maintaining the competitiveness of nations and firms. The relationship between innovation and exporting has been investigated for many countries. However, there is a paucity of research in Vietnam with respect to this issue. In this paper we examine whether innovation performed by Vietnam’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) enhances their exporting likelihood. Using the recently released Vietnam Small and Medium Enterprise Survey 2005, we find that innovation as measured directly by ‘new products’, ‘new production process’ and ‘improvement of existing products’ are important determinants of exports by Vietnamese SMEs. |
| Keywords: | Vietnam; Export; Innovation; Small and Medium Enterprise |
| JEL: | F10 O3 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3256&r=tra |