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on Transition Economics |
| By: | Marie Stack; Eric Pentecost |
| Abstract: | Examining the trade prospects for the new European Union (EU) member states and the EU associated partner countries is an important issue in the context of European eastward enlargement and greater economic integration with its immediate neighbours. An out-ofsample approach to projecting trade volumes for twenty countries of interest is adopted using a gravity equation for a panel data set of bilateral export flows from twelve EU countries to twenty OECD trading partners over the 1992-2003 period. The potential trade volumes are calculated from a gravity model of new trade theory (NTT) determinants. The selected twenty countries’ prospects for further trade integration vis-à-vis the EU can be gauged by expressing the trade volume projections as a ratio of actual trade volumes for each pair of countries. The projected trade ratios for the ten new member states are found to be multiples of actual 2003 levels, indicating that trade expansion looks set to continue. Near unity values, however, are more frequent among the Mediterranean countries, indicating fewer opportunities for further trade integration with the EU. |
| Keywords: | Panel data, Gravity model, Trade integration |
| JEL: | F14 F15 C23 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbs:wpaper:2010/11&r=tra |
| By: | Szent-Ivanyi, Balazs |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the main characteristics of the (re)emerging foreign aid policies of the Visegrád countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), concentrating on the allocation of their aid resources. We adopt an econometric approach, similar to the ones used in the literature for analyzing the aid allocation of the OECD DAC donors. Using this approach, we examine the various factors that influence aid allocation of the Visegrád countries, using data for the years between 2001 and 2008. Our most important conclusion is that the amount of aid a partner county gets from the four emerging donors is not influenced by the level of poverty or the previous performance (measured by the level of economic growth or the quality of institutions) of the recipients. The main determining factor seems to be geographic proximity, as countries in the Western-Balkans and the Post-Soviet region receive much more aid from the Visegrád countries than other recipients. Historical ties (pre-1989 development relations) and international obligations in the case of Afghanistan and Iraq are also found to be significant explanatory factors. This allocation is in line with the foreign political and economic interests of these new donors. While there are clear similarities between the four donors, the paper also identifies some individual country characteristics. |
| Keywords: | Visegrád countries; foreign aid; aid allocation; emerging donors |
| JEL: | F59 O19 |
| Date: | 2010–09–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30234&r=tra |
| By: | Huang, Yiping (Asian Development Bank Institute); Tao, Kunyu (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | The current account surplus of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has drawn much foreign and domestic attention. This paper focuses on the reasons and remedies for the PRC’s current account surpluses. Rather than deploying the standard explanations, we argue that asymmetric market liberalization and the related factor market distortion is the root reason for the PRC’s external imbalances. These cost distortions have artificially lowered PRC production costs, raised profits, and improved their products’ international competitiveness which has not only stimulated the economy, but also brought about severe structural risks. We completed a crude estimation for factor cost distortions in the PRC during 2000–2009 which matched its current account surpluses quite well. In order to rebalance the economy, we recommend that the PRC should adopt a comprehensive reform package focusing on removing the factor market distortions. |
| Keywords: | prc; current account surplus; economic rebalancing; exchange rate; factor market distortion |
| JEL: | E61 F32 H24 O11 |
| Date: | 2011–04–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0279&r=tra |
| By: | Muravyev, Alexander |
| Abstract: | The paper focuses on the current state of economic science in Russia with a particular emphasis on the role of Russian journals in accumulation and dis-semination of knowledge. We compare important quantitative characteristics of Russian and international journals in the field of economics. We also attempt to establish correspondences between the impact-factor of the Russian Science Ci-tation Index on the one hand and the impact-factors of RePEc and Web of Sci-ence databases on the other hand. Using the EconLit database we analyze publications of Russian econo-mists, who can be regarded, according to a number of criteria, as most active re-searchers, in international journals. Among our main conclusions are low quality of Russian economic journals and low recognition of them in the world, a lim-ited number of Russian economists who are actively publishing in international journals, with most of them concentrated in few institutions such as New Eco-nomic School, Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Higher School of Economics. Overall, our analysis confirms the widely held view that economic science in Russia is progressing rather slowly and remains poorly integrated into the world’s science. |
| Keywords: | Russian economic science; Russian economic journals; bibliometric rankings |
| JEL: | A11 |
| Date: | 2011–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30230&r=tra |
| By: | Doan, Tinh |
| Abstract: | This paper employs the Ordinary Least Squares, Instrumental Variables and Treatment Effect models to a new dataset from the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey (VHLSS) to estimate return to the four-year university education in 2008. Our estimates reveal that the return to university education is about 17% (annualized) and robust to the various estimators. The return to higher education has significantly increased since the economic reform in late 1980s. -- |
| Keywords: | economic transition,returns to higher education,IV model,Vietnam |
| JEL: | C31 J31 O15 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:20114&r=tra |
| By: | Monica Martinez-Bravo; Gerard Padró i Miquel; Nancy Qian; Yang Yao |
| Abstract: | We use unique survey data to study whether the introduction of local elections in China made local leaders more accountable towards local constituents. We develop a simple model to predict the effects on different policies of increasing local leader accountability, taking into account that there is an autocratic upper government. We exploit variation in the timing of the top-down introduction of elections across villages to estimate the causal effects of elections and find that elections affected policy outcomes in a way that is consistent with the predicted effects of increased local leader accountability. |
| JEL: | H4 P16 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:16948&r=tra |
| By: | Atamanov, Aziz (Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, Maastricht University); Van den Berg, Marrit (Dept. of Development Economics, Wageningen University) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses two representative household budget surveys from the Kyrgyz Republic to analyze factors influencing participation and returns from different types of nonfarm activities in 2005 and 2006. Nonfarm activities are found to be most important for the poor, who are pushed out of agriculture due to limited and poor land resources. We also show that different nonfarm activities have different human capital requirements. Unlike other studies, we use the double hurdle model which allows us to demonstrate that a number of variables have different effects on participation and income from nonfarm activities. For example, residing in remote areas and lack of capital are found to stimulate participation in nonfarm activities, but decrease nonfarm income. Overall, the empirical analysis confirms the importance of rural nonfarm activities and indicates that equipping poor households to enable them to move towards better remunerative nonfarm activities should be a priority for Kyrgyz rural policy makers. |
| Keywords: | nonfarm activities, rural areas, Kyrgyz Republic, household income, nonfarm income, rural policy, public policy |
| JEL: | J18 J38 J43 J48 Q12 Q18 I32 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:unumer:2011011&r=tra |
| By: | Rita Asplund; Sami Napari |
| Abstract: | This paper compares the effects of intangible capital on wage formation among white-collar manufacturing workers using comparative data from three European countries : the Czech Republic, Finland and Norway. The analysis is undertaken in two steps. First, we explore the wage differentials and the underlying sources for two occupation groups : innovation and non-innovation workers. In a second step, this analysis is broken down by gender. We apply a decomposition method based on unconditional quantile regression techniques to examine the factors underlying the wage gaps observed along the whole wage distribution. The use of comparative cross-country data and a more elaborated wage decomposition method provides important new insights. We find, for example, that although innovation workers earn more than non-innovation workers in all three countries under scrutiny, there is considerable variation across the countries both in the levels and profiles of these wage differentials. Also the sources underlying these wage differentials vary between the countries. The levels and profiles of the gender wage gaps prevailing among innovation and non-innovation workers also reveal conspicuous cross-country differences. However, when it comes to the major sources contributing to these gender wage gaps, the results are strikingly similar across countries : what matters is marked gender differences in the rewards to similar basic human capital characteristics, not gender differences in these endowments. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap, decomposition, human capital, intangible capital, manufacturing, quantile regression, wage formation, cross-country comparison |
| JEL: | J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2011–04–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1248&r=tra |
| By: | Matei, Ani; Tuca, Mihaela |
| Abstract: | Corporate Social Responsibility is no longer an object of novelty in literature or the business sector. The practices in this matter have became a new area of activity expansion and a new way that companies use to strengthen their image, consumer appreciation and even employees motivation. The present paper proposes an analyses of the literature, a comparative study and a summary of the international organizations view on the matter. |
| Keywords: | Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR); Theory Development; Country report |
| JEL: | M31 L31 |
| Date: | 2011–03–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:30061&r=tra |