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on Transition Economics |
| By: | Zhiyang Liu (Shanghai University of Finance and Economics); Zhiqi Chen (Department of Economics, Carleton University) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the relationship between venture capital (VC) networks and investment performance in China. Distinct features of China’s VC networks are captured in our econometric model through the inclusion of an index of network stability and a dummy variable that indicates a VC firm’s connections with the Chinese state. Our econometric analysis shows that a VC firm’s position in its network, its network stability and close connections with the state all contribute to its investment performance. Comparison with the findings in Hochberg et al. (2007) indicates that networks are more important for investment performance in China than in the US. Moreover, our analysis suggests that familiarity with local culture and customs and understanding of the idiosyncrasies of China’s markets and institutions are important for the success of a VC firm in China. |
| Keywords: | Venture capital; Networks; Investment performance; China |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:car:carecp:14-12&r=tra |
| By: | Ketenci, Natalya |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the level of capital mobility in Russia, testing the Feldstein-Horioka puzzle proposed by Feldstein and Horioka (1980). The study examines relations between saving and investment flows in Russia in the presence of structural breaks. It employs the quarterly data for the period 1995-2013, where all estimations are made for two periods, the full period 1995-2013, and 2000-2013, the post Russian crisis period. The empirical analysis includes the Kejriwal and Perron (2008, 2010) structural break test to determine the presence of structural breaks in series and to estimate the saving-retention coefficient under the consideration of structural shifts. To allow for comparison, the parameters of the model were estimated employing the OLS and FMOLS procedures. To test the cointegration relationships between investment and saving flows of Russia, three different cointegration tests were applied to the data. First applied was the Gregory and Hansen (1996) cointegration test, which allows for one structural shift; then, in a case where two breaks were detected, the Hatemi-J (2008) cointegration test was employed. Finally, for a case where more than two breaks are detected, the Maki (2012) cointegration test, which allows for an unknown number of breaks, was applied. The results of this study provide evidence of high capital mobility and reject the existence of the FHP in the post-Russian crisis period. However, failure to reject the hypothesis of no cointegration by all employed cointegration tests denies the solvency of a current account of Russia. |
| Keywords: | Feldstein-Horioka puzzle, saving-investment association, capital mobility, cointegration, structural breaks, Russia. |
| JEL: | F32 |
| Date: | 2014–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59013&r=tra |
| By: | Cvijanović, Drago; Jonel, Subic; Jean, Andrei |
| Abstract: | International Scientific Conference „SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN TERMS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA STRATEGIC GOALS REALIZATION WITHIN THE DANUBE REGION - rural development and (un)limited resources“, which was held in period 5-6th June 2014 in Belgrade, the Republic of Serbia, through number of presented papers mainly provides an overview of results of scientific research on the integrated and interdisciplinary project No. III 46006 „SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN TERMS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA STRATEGIC GOALS REALIZATION WITHIN THE DANUBE REGION“. Besides the authors from Serbia in Thematic Proceedings are also presented the papers of authors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania, Romania, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Austria and USA. The papers are systematized in 3 thematic sections: I RURAL ECONOMY IN THE FUNCTION OF INTEGRAL LOCAL DEVELOPMENT (section was represented by 30 papers); II ALLOCATION AND VALORIZATION OF RESOURCE POTENTIALS OF RURAL AREAS (section was represented by 26 papers); III THE REFORM OF THE EU COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY – A NEW DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK FOR THE PERIOD 2014-2020 (section was represented by 7 papers). |
| Keywords: | Agriculture, sustainable agriculture, rural development, strategic goals, Danube region, regional competitiveness |
| JEL: | A1 A32 Q1 Q2 Q5 |
| Date: | 2014–05–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:58558&r=tra |
| By: | Xueting Zhao (Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University) |
| Abstract: | With strong economic growth, China’s energy consumption and CO2 emissions grow quickly. The energy shortage and environmental problem have become the bottleneck of further economic growth. The most popular method to estimate the environmental impact is the Environmental input-output analysis, and the most important data support is the sectoral emission intensities. This Resource Document describes the process to estimate the China sectoral CO2 emission intensities based on the Disaggregated Input-Output table (suggest to read the Technical Document: Disaggregating Input-Output Models). This document includes the data sources, calculation process and the procedural notes.The calculation includes both the national China and Shanxi province. |
| Keywords: | China, Sectoral, Emission Intensity, Input-Output |
| JEL: | C67 Q53 R15 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rri:wpaper:2014rd02&r=tra |
| By: | Kuzyaeva, Anastasia; Didenko, Alexander |
| Abstract: | Over the last decades, much attention has been drawn to the question of productivity variation across countries. The differences in cross-country productivity could be explained by both foreign and domestic innovation. In order to estimate the influence of the former, the international transfer of technology should be considered. Foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade are suggested to be major conduits of international technology transfer. The present paper aims to extend the current empirical literature by determining the effect and the source of productivity spillover in Russia on the example of chemical industry. In order to find out the existence of FDI and international trade productivity spillover we applied the methodology developed by Ericson and Pakes (1995) and Olley and Pakes (1996). The econometric model was tested on the companies from chemical industry for the period 2007-2012. The empirical results show that FDI and international trade productivity spillovers are present in Russian chemical industry. The size of FDI spillovers is economically more important than imports-related spillovers. Based on the empirical results, we may predict that Russian accession to the World Trade Organization in 2012 should result in productivity growth. However, further research on this topic will be possible when the statistical data is available for several years after annexation. |
| Keywords: | FDI, chemical industry, technology transfer, productivity spillover, international trade |
| JEL: | D24 F13 L65 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59349&r=tra |
| By: | Fu, Shihe; Gu, Yizhen |
| Abstract: | Most highways in urban China are tolled to finance their construction. During the eight-day National Day holiday in 2012, highway tolls are waived nationwide for passenger vehicles. We use this to test highway tolls’ effect on air pollution. Using daily pollution and weather data for 98 Chinese cities in 2011 and 2012 and employing both a regression discontinuity design and differences-in-differences method with 2011 National Day holiday as a control, we find that eliminating tolls increases pollution by 20% and decreases visibility by one kilometer. We also estimate that the toll elasticity of air pollution is 0.16. These findings complement the scant literature on the environmental impact of road pricing. |
| Keywords: | highway toll; air pollution; visibility; regression discontinuity design; differences-in-differences |
| JEL: | H23 Q53 R41 R48 |
| Date: | 2014–10–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59619&r=tra |
| By: | Juraev, Nosirjon |
| Abstract: | The following paper aims to contribute the existing literature on Russian tobacco use by analysing the determinants of smoking, and comparing the results to previous researches. We are also one of the few, if not the first to test the significance of BMI (Body Mass Index) with smoking habits. Our results mostly compromise with the results of previous English literature. Smokers generally tend to lose weight, and obese people naturally do not practice smoking. Educated people, religion believer smoke significantly less than school leavers, nonbelievers and army servers do. |
| Keywords: | Tobacco determinants, Russia |
| JEL: | D00 |
| Date: | 2014–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59065&r=tra |
| By: | Damijan, Jože (University of Ljubljana, LICOS, VIVES and Institute for Economic Research, Ljubljana); Kostevc, Crt (University of Ljubljana and Institute for Economic Research, Ljubljana); Rojec, Matija (University of Ljubljana, Institute for Economic Research, Ljubljana, and Institute of Macroeconomic Analaysis and Development, Ljubljana) |
| Abstract: | Using a large sample of micro data we investigate what kind of CEECs-9 (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) firms tend to invest abroad, and what is the impact of outward FDI on their productivity. We find that firms with outward FDI tend to be larger and more productive, i.e. the best firms tend to self-select into outward FDI. There is also a positive effect of outward FDI on productivity growth of investing firms from CEECs, but this effect is driven exclusively by the subsamples of Czech and Romanian firms, while the impact in other countries is substantially less pronounced. In addition, the positive effect does not appear to be long lasting as it is only statistically significant a year after the investment was made, while employing longer lags yielded positive but insignificant correlations. We also find the heterogeneity of effects by different host-country markets, i.e. investments by CEECs firms into either Western European or other CEECs yielded an above average effect on productivity growth of investing firms, investments into other parts of Europe did not significantly impact the growth of productivity, while North American subsidiaries were even negatively correlated with productivity growth. |
| Keywords: | FDI; cross-country comparisons; emerging economies; productivity growth; micro-data |
| JEL: | C30 F23 O47 O57 |
| Date: | 2014–10–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0381&r=tra |
| By: | Didenko, Alexander |
| Abstract: | We focus on assessing RES- and energy-efficiency promoting policy mixes for Russia from multicriteria perspective with emphasis on GHG emission reduction. We start from two surveys: the first one studies country’s energy saving and RES potential to determine possible range of outcomes for policy mixes in question; the second one reviews corpus of relevant official documents to formulate policy alternatives, which the policymakers are facing. Our findings are then blended with forecasts of government and international agencies to obtain three scenarios, describing possible joint paths of development for Russian energy sector in the context of demographic, economic and climatic trends, as well as regulatory impact from three policy portfolios, for period from 2010 (baseline year) till 2050. Scenarios are modeled in Long-Range Energy Alternatives Planning (LEAP) environment, and the output in the form of GHG emissions projections for 2010-2050 is obtained. We then assess three policy portfolios with multi-criteria climate change policies evaluation method AMS. Our analysis suggests that optimistic scenario is most environmentally friendly, pessimistic one is easier to implement, and business-as-usual balances interests of all stakeholders in charge. This might be interpreted as an evidence of lack of governmental regulation and motivation to intervene in energy sector to make it greener and more sustainable. |
| Keywords: | regulatory impact assessment, multi-criteria evaluation, MCDA, AMS, MAUT, SMART, long-range energy alternatives planning (LEAP), climate policy, climate change, energy policy, mitigation/adaptation, RES promotion, energy efficiency, GHG emissions. |
| JEL: | Z00 |
| Date: | 2013–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59350&r=tra |
| By: | Emran, M. Shahe; Sun, Yan |
| Abstract: | This paper relaxes the single factor model of intergenerational educational mobility standard in the literature, and develops a research design to study the effects of parents' education and occupation on children's schooling. We use survey data from rural China that cover three generations and are not subject to coresidency bias. The evidence from recently developed matching and propensity score weighted estimators shows that the mean effects of parents education from the standard model miss substantial heterogeneity. Within the low education subsample, a son (girl) attains about 0.80 (0.60) years of additional schooling when born into a non-farm household compared to a farm household, and among the farming households, a child gains a one year of schooling when at least one parent has more than primary schooling. Having nonfarm parents, however, does not confer any advantages over the farmer parents if the farmers are relatively more educated, even though nonfarm households have significantly higher income. This suggests that income plays a secondary role to parental education. Estimates of cross-partial effects without imposing functional form show little evidence of complementarity between parental education and non-farm occupation. The role of family background remains stable across generations for girls, but for boys, family background has become more important after the market reform. |
| Keywords: | Educational Mobility, Inequality, Rural China, Nonfarm, Education and Occupation, Family Background, Heterogeneity, Complementarity, Market Reform, Gender Gap |
| JEL: | I24 I32 O1 |
| Date: | 2014–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59230&r=tra |
| By: | Bian, Timothy Yang (University of International Business and Economics); Gete, Pedro (Georgetown University and IE Business School) |
| Abstract: | We study housing dynamics in China using vector autoregressions identified with theoryconsistent sign restrictions. We study five potential drivers: 1) Population increases; 2) a relaxation of credit standards, for example, due to the shadow banking system; 3) increasing preferences towards housing, for example, due to a housing bubble or housing being a status asset to be competitive in the marriage market; 4) an increase in the savings rate; and 5) expected productivity progress. Our results show that fundamental shocks (population, credit and productivity) play a major role in the dynamics of house prices and residential investment before 2009. Preference shocks seem especially relevant in the last several years, and when the estimation uses price indices not coming from China’s National Bureau of Statistics. |
| JEL: | E3 F44 R21 R31 |
| Date: | 2014–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:feddgw:193&r=tra |
| By: | Coleman, Stephen |
| Abstract: | The Russian political party system has developed through a tumultuous era, progressing from extreme fragmentation to a smaller, more stable number of parties. Much of this change was engineered by elites and especially by President Putin, leading to the question of whether the result is a normal party system by traditional Western standards or just a tool of the government. By means of a predictive mathematical model, the analysis shows that the party system indeed has grown strong popular roots with a great impact on the overall distribution of votes among the parties. This is caused by the pervasive but unconscious effect of social conformity on voters. |
| Keywords: | Russia; political parties; voting; mathematical model; social conformity; unconscious behavior |
| JEL: | C1 C51 D72 D87 P3 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59038&r=tra |
| By: | Kitano, Naohiro; Harada, Yukinori |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to estimate China’s net foreign aid from 2001 to 2013 as compared to net ODA figures which OECD DAC usually uses. First, a practical definition to capture China’s foreign aid activities as a proxy for China’s ODA was proposed. It consists of grants and interest-free loans (treated as grants), concessional loans as bilateral aid, and contributions to international development agencies as multilateral aid. Second, both net and gross disbursements of China’s foreign aid were estimated. The results showed that China’s net foreign aid has grown rapidly since 2004 and reached US$ 7.1 billion in 2013. The share of bilateral aid is much larger than that of multilateral aid. The difference between net and gross foreign aid is still small due to the fact that the repayment of concessional loans is still relatively limited. For reference, net disbursement of preferential export buyer’s credits, which some recipient countries treat as ODA loans, was estimated to have been US$ 7.0 billion in 2013. Third, the results were compared with DAC members’ ODA; China’s rank has moved up from 16th in 2001 to 6th in 2012 and 2013. China’s bilateral aid has approached that of France, while its multilateral aid has been estimated to be relatively small. China’s foreign aid is expected to increase rapidly and catch up with some of top five DAC members in the foreseeable future. |
| Keywords: | China , foreign aid , ODA , concessional loans , OECD DAC |
| Date: | 2014–06–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jic:wpaper:78&r=tra |
| By: | Zaman, Gheorghe; Georgescu, George |
| Abstract: | The balance of the financial exercise 2007-2013 revealed an absorption rate of 27% from the total EU Budget allocations for SCF in the case of Romania. This ratio, the lowest among CEE countries, has been under the influence of various causes, within the system of SCF accessing i.e. at the level of beneficiaries and MAs on different stages of absorption and also outer causes, mainly the legal framework weaknesses and the global crisis effects. The study highlighted the net beneficiary position of Romania relative to the EU budget, but the macroeconomic impact of SCF was found as having rather poor significance. The relevant macroeconomic indicators have registered unfavorable trends during post-crisis period, mainly in terms of foreign investments, external debt and public debt, which could not be mitigated by the SCF inflows. For the period 2014-2020, the new approach of the EU Cohesion Policy, more result-oriented, along with the lessons learned by Romania could address most of factors that are meant to improve the ESI funds absorption, a significant impact being also expected. |
| Keywords: | EU Cohesion Policy; Structural and Cohesion Funds; absorption rate; macroeconomic indicators; European funds impact |
| JEL: | E22 F15 F36 F43 O19 |
| Date: | 2014–05–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:56144&r=tra |
| By: | Nguyen, Huy |
| Abstract: | This study examines economic performances and household’s behaviours in multiple crops farming in Vietnam. Smallholder farming systems in Vietnam is being transformed by integration between cash cropping and main food cropping operations. This transformation into diversified farming systems can affect the economies of scope, technical efficiency, and performances of farms. By using the approach of input distance function, we find the first evidence of both scale and scope economies that have important economic performance implications. There is an existence of substantial technical inefficiency in multiple crops farming, which implies that there may be opportunities to expand crop outputs by eliminating technical inefficiency. Enhancing education and further land reforms are main technical efficiency shifters. We also find the complementarity evidence between family labour and other inputs, except hired labour. Thus, policies that lead to more incentives to invest in crop faming activities should focus on the reduction of input costs. |
| Keywords: | crop diversification, input distance function, elasticity of substitution, stochastic frontier, and technical efficiency |
| JEL: | D13 O3 O33 |
| Date: | 2014–09–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59168&r=tra |