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on Transition Economics |
| By: | Chan, Tze-Haw |
| Abstract: | China appears as the biggest trading partner for ASEAN economy but it is inconclusive whether the complementarities between China and regional economies offset China’s competitive threat. We assess if real exchange fluctuations and the demand-supply channels determine the Malaysia-China trade balances in the global crises era, 1997-2010. The findings reveal that despite the long run effect of real exchange on trade balances, the Keynesian demand channel was not uphold during and after the global financial crisis – due to the contractionary effect on Malaysian output. Currency devaluation for exports gains is insufficient to sustain Malaysia output expansion against China. Further productivity growth in real and tradable sectors is essentially needed. Meanwhile, the Chinese inflation impact is not evident following the foreign exchange shock and, the study generally supports the complementary role of China in the Malaysia-China bilateral trading. |
| Keywords: | Trade Balances, Contractionary effect, global crises, bootstrapping, VARX, VECMX |
| JEL: | C51 F41 |
| Date: | 2014–01–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59539&r=tra |
| By: | Polterovich, Victor |
| Abstract: | Abstract The article deals with the basic elements of a rational strategy of economic development of Russia in the modern circumstances. The analysis shows that the current state of confrontation between Russia and the United States will last long enough. Trying to shorten the period of forced partial isolation, Russia should use it to restore growth and to prepare for further integration with Europe. We need to debug the credit system, to complete the creation of the NIS, as well as systems of indicative planning and continuing education, and to improve the administration in accordance with the principles of the theory of "developmental state." Implementing import substitution, we should seek to production diversification, based on the expansion of domestic consumption of goods produced from natural resources. It is necessary to ensure the dissemination of the technologies available at leading Russian companies in the whole country, and accelerate the transition to innovative development. To solve these problems, one needs a modern science sector, containing all the intermediate links between basic and applied research. Strengthening the rule of law, respect for the opposition, improving the investment climate - this strategy is the best response to foreign political pressure, the key to Russia's strategic security. |
| Keywords: | middle income trap, national innovation system, indicative planning, integration, regional development agency, diversification, science sector, strategic security |
| JEL: | D02 H11 O43 P21 |
| Date: | 2014–11–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:60068&r=tra |
| By: | Gotz, Linde; Djuric, Ivan; Glauben, Thomas |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the domestic price effects of export controls for all 3 KRU countries during the 2007/08 as well as the 2010/11 commodity price peaks. We develop two indicators to measure the strength of the export controls’ price damping and price insulating effect within a non-linear long-run price transmission model. Our analysis comprises 11 cases of export controls, distinguishing regional price effects within Russia. We observe heterogeneity in the damping and insulating effects of the export controls among the KRU and among the regions of Russia. Our model identifies the strongest domestic price effects during the export ban in North Caucasus (Russia), which were transmitted to Central, Black Earth and Volga regions by wheat flows from North Caucasus. For Ukraine the strongest price effects are observed during the export tax system 2011. The price effects identified for the 2006/7, 2007/8 and 2010/11 export quota systems are comparable to those observed for Central, Black Earth and Volga region. Contrary, our results do not identify any price effects of the export ban in Russia on Ural and West Siberia. We also do not find price decreasing effects during the export ban in Kazakhstan and the export tax system in Russia 2007/8. Concluding, the effectiveness of export controls in the KRU to dampen and decouple domestic wheat prices from world market price developments is generally rather limited. |
| Keywords: | export controls, market integration, price transmission, crisis policy, Russia, Crop Production/Industries, Demand and Price Analysis, |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gewi14:187448&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: | A1 A10 D0 D00 |
| Date: | 2014–03–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59810&r=tra |
| By: | Gustafsson, Björn Anders (University of Gothenburg); Sai, Ding (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) |
| Abstract: | Disparities in length of schooling between the largest Muslim minority in China, the Hui, and the Han majority are investigated. We use household data collected in Ningxia autonomous region in 2007. It is found that compared with Han persons of the same age and gender, Hui persons have shorter educations with the exception of young and middle-aged urban males who have twelve years of schooling, on average. Particularly noteworthy is that as many as 45 percent of adult rural Hui females are not literate. Possible reasons for the shorter educations of Hui in many segments of the population are numerous. We show that the incentive to invest in length of schooling is smaller among Hui than Han as the association between education and income is weaker. We also report that Hui parents spend fewer resources on education than Han parents and that fewer years of schooling for Hui in the first generation helps to explain why Hui persons in the second generation have shorter educations. |
| Keywords: | China, schooling, Hui ethnicity, Han ethnicity, Ningxia, inequality |
| JEL: | I24 J15 P35 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8595&r=tra |
| By: | Yi Huang; Prakash Loungani; Gewei Wang |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first systematic study of how minimum wage policies in China affect firm employment over the 2000-2007 periods. Using a novel dataset of minimum wage regulations across more than 2,800 counties matched with firm-level data, we investigate both the effect of the minimum wage and its policy enforcement tightening in 2004. A dynamic panel (difference GMM) estimator is combined with a “neighbor-pairs-approach†to control for unobservable heterogeneity common to “border counties†that are subject to different minimum wage changes. We show that minimum wage increases have a significant negative impact on employment, with an estimated elasticity of -0.1. Furthermore, we find a heterogeneous effect of the minimum wage on employment which depends on the firm's wage level. Specifically, the minimum wage has a greater negative impact on employment in low-wage firms than in high-wage firms. Our results are robust for different treatment groups, sample attrition correction, and placebo tests. |
| Keywords: | Minimum wages;China;Employment;Business enterprises;Labor demand;Labor supply;Wage policy;Econometric models;China, employment, minimum wages |
| Date: | 2014–10–16 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:14/184&r=tra |
| By: | Ma, Meilin; Zhu, Heng |
| Abstract: | Farmer cooperatives are playing an increasingly crucial role in the current reform of the agricultural sector in China. Two features of these organizations have stood out amidst the undergoing, rapid development. One is the highly concentrated decision-making structure, while the other being the high level of member heterogeneity in terms of production capacity and ownership portion. Current literature has few quantitative models for analyzing the effects of governance centralization and member heterogeneity on cooperative economic efficiency. This article focuses on evaluating the efficiency of decisions made under different voting structures when members are highly heterogeneous. We use a net income model for a two-stage investment decision. We find that members with a larger ownership in a Chinese cooperative tend to have better aligned interest with the organization and can make more efficient decisions relative to those with less ownership. When heterogeneity among members is high, a more centralized decision making structure can lead to higher economic efficiency. Additionally, because the optimal level of centralization is determined by the redistribution policy of cooperative profits and properties of member heterogeneity, different cooperatives would accordingly have different optimal degrees of centralization. |
| Keywords: | Chinese Farmer Professional Cooperatives, Economic efficiency, Centralized decision power, Member heterogeneity, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Industrial Organization, Q13, D71, |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:168366&r=tra |
| By: | Maximilian Mueller (WHU–Otto Beisheim School of Management); Denis Schweizer (Concordia University); Volker Seiler (University of Paderborn) |
| Abstract: | The strategic importance of rare earth elements (REEs) has become increasingly important because of their relative scarcity and worldwide increasing demand, as well as China’s quasi-monopoly of this market. REEs are virtually not substitutable, and they are essential for a variety of high-tech products and modern key technologies. This has raised serious concerns that China will misuse its dominant position to set export quotas in order to maximize its own profits at the expense of other rare earth user industries (e.g., the wealth transfer motive). In fact, export restrictions on REEs were the catalyst for the U.S. to lodge a formal complaint against China in 2012 at the WTO. This paper analyzes possible wealth transfer effects by focusing on export quota announcements (so-called MOFCOM announcements) by China, and then calculating share price reactions for Chinese REE suppliers, U.S. REE users, and the rest of the world REE refiners. The results of the multivariate regression analyses do not support the view of a wealth transfer in connection with the MOFCOM announcements. This suggests that export quotas may be viewed more as a public scapegoat, and have limited influence on markets. We find instead that extreme REE price movements should be the topic of concern, as they have a significant impact on share prices for all companies in the REE industry. |
| Keywords: | Announcement Effects, Event Study, Rare Earths Elements, WTO |
| JEL: | F13 F52 G14 Q31 Q34 Q37 Q38 |
| Date: | 2014–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pdn:ciepap:86&r=tra |
| By: | Ward, Michael R.; Zheng, Shilin |
| Abstract: | We contribute to the role of telecommunications infrastructure on economic growth in three ways. We separately examine fixed-line and mobile telephone subscription levels. We compare results across periods and regions that differ by the level of development. In addition, we develop a method designed to address endogeneity of telecommunications with respect to growth. We find that mobile services contribute much more to growth but that the effect diminishes as the provincial economy develops more. |
| Keywords: | Growth,Mobile Phone,China |
| JEL: | O4 L96 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:itse14:101405&r=tra |
| By: | Consigilio, John |
| Abstract: | The financial services sectors of Romania and Estonia moved towards privatization in sharply contrasting manners. For a long time Romania's enthusiasm for its 1998 promise to the IMF to privatize its leading banks was only a commitment on paper; few steps were made towards its fulfillment. By contrast, Estonia's experience of privatization was generally a positive one, based on norms and structures often comparable to those in advanced industrial economies. |
| Keywords: | privatization,financial,services,Romania,Estonia,EBRD,IMF |
| JEL: | G21 G28 N24 P34 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:eabhps:1409&r=tra |
| By: | Wang, Hui |
| Abstract: | Unlike in the United States where fertility is found to be negatively correlated with female labor force participation, China has witnessed a decrease in both fertility and female labor force participation since the 1980s. Does fertility play a different role in female labor force participation in China than in the U.S.? To answer this question, this paper exploits plausibly exogenous variations in fertility created by the afffirmative One-Child Policy in China to estimate the effect of having two or more children on the mother's labor force participation. Using a large data set from the 1990 Population Census, we find that though OLS shows positive effects of fertility, 2SLS will report negative effects of having two or more children on female labor force participation in rural China. |
| Keywords: | Fertility, Female Labor Force Participation, One-Child Policy, China, Consumer/Household Economics, International Development, Labor and Human Capital, J13, J22, O15, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:169288&r=tra |
| By: | Young, Ethan R.; Shi, Guanming |
| Abstract: | China, a country developing at unprecedented levels, has experienced drastic changes throughout its recent economic history. Of primary interest is the continuing development and improvement of the rural agricultural sector, with even the slightest changes in this sector having dramatic ripple effects on rural economies. Estimates of rural households involved in agricultural production range from 65 to 70 percent (de Brauw & Rozelle, 2008; Rozelle, Taylor, & de Brauw, 1999). Improvements in agricultural production therefore have a direct impact on the livelihood of rural households in China. Thus, of primary interest are the factors influencing the smallholder farmers' agricultural investment strategies to improve agricultural yields. Households involved in agricultural production can primarily improve their yields through the use of various agricultural improvements made available by ongoing agricultural research. Of utmost interest is the following question: If the returns to agricultural technologies, such as fertilizers, pesticides, genetically-modified seeds, and fixed land improvements, have had positive effects for agricultural households, then what constrains households from applying them? Due to the complexities of the household production decision, literature devoted to finding the answer to this question is limitless and spans almost all regions of the world. However, this analysis focuses on the barriers to investment, potential strategies used to overcome them, and their joint impacts on agricultural investment in rural China. Data in this analysis are cross-sectional, collected over a period of three years between 2006 and 2008 from rural villages within six provinces in China. This analysis is applied over Hunan, Yunnan, and Heilongjiang provinces, intended to capture effects on the investment decision that may differ by region. Households surveyed over the three years total to 4,178, with a total of 3,718 used in this analysis. Of these households, 3,347 (90%) were registered under agricultural hukou, with 3,269 (87.9%) involved in agricultural production during the year of 2008. Major contributions of this analysis stem from the joint assessment of four main factors that influence the household’s agricultural investment decision. More specifically, the impacts of land tenure security, access to credit, education, and migration on agricultural investment are examined. Analysis of each of these four factors is conducted using a Heckman sample selection model across three surveyed provinces. Use of the Heckman model allows us to account for the existence of sample selection bias that exists between those farmers who choose to invest and those who do not. In the first stage of the Heckman model, impacts of each of the four core factors on the likelihood of agricultural investment are quantified. This is followed by a second stage examination of factors influencing the intensity of investment, conditional on the fact that the investment decision has been made. Preliminary findings indicate that each of the four core factors have an influential role on both the likelihood and intensity of investment across rural agricultural households. Across all provinces, agricultural households with more than 80 percent of their landholdings being rented in are less likely to invest. However, conditional on investments being made, these households will tend to invest more intensively than those farmers with a greater proportion of allocated land. Additionally, access to credit has a significant positive impact on both the likelihood and intensity of investment across all agricultural households. Lastly, impacts of education and migration have been mixed, with larger positive impacts noticed from remission income sent home from migrant household laborers. Given negative impacts of land tenure insecurity on the likelihood of investment, it is clear that more should be done to improve the security of rental contracts. The need for this is real and apparent, as nearly 88 percent of rental contracts had not set a clear duration of the lease, and so many rented plots of land are rented under insecure terms (Gao, et al., 2012). Additionally, given positive impacts of credit access on the likelihood and intensity of investment, expansions to the rural credit market could encourage further agricultural investment. Combined, policy improvements and expansions to the rural credit market will produce positive multiplier effects and thus help improve the rural economies within China. |
| Keywords: | Land tenure, Agricultural Economics, Heckman, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Development, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170500&r=tra |
| By: | Wang, Jingjing; Chen, Mei; Klein, Peter G. |
| Abstract: | Dairy United is one of China’s fastest-growing and most innovative milk producers. Dairy United’s unusual business model has propelled it from underdog to main player during the industry's reshuffle after the 2008 Chinese milk scandal. Instead of making farmers shareholders of the company, or members of a cooperative, Dairy United leases their cows, the main asset used in production. Contracting with small dairy farmers for use of their cows, the firm raises farmers' cows using modern facilities, technologies, and management practices. Farmers receive fixed biannual returns but give up control, cash-flow, and residual-claimant rights to Dairy United. The leasing model is not only an unique governance choice for an industry moving from dispersed, small-scale production to larger-scale, capital-intensive methods, but also raises interesting questions about how to apply agency and property rights theory to organizational structure. We explain Dairy United's governance choice by comparing costs and benefits of leasing contracts, cooperatives, and corporations. |
| Keywords: | Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Development, Livestock Production/Industries, |
| Date: | 2014–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:174397&r=tra |
| By: | Nemec-Boehm, Rebecca L.; Cash, Sean B.; Anderson, Bruce T.; Ahmed, Selena; Griffin, Timothy S.; Orians, Colin M.; Robbat, Albert Jr.; Stepp, Richard A.; Han, Wenyan |
| Abstract: | The objective of this research is to estimate the economic impact of climate change on tea production in China. We use historical weather and production data from 1980 to 2011 to construct a yield response model from panel data that estimates the partial effect of specific weather factors on tea yields in China, with a specific focus on monsoon dynamics. We base our analysis upon methodologies employed in previous studies, many of which use a yield response model to estimate the impact climate change on crop yields or other economic indicators of agricultural productivity. Previous studies have tended to focus mostly on staple crops like maize as well as other food crops like fruits and vegetables, but tea is an important export crop for many developing countries. Instead of estimating the monsoon based on historical dates of onset, duration and retrieval we construct the actual approximated onset and retrieval dates based on the year-by-province cumulative precipitation function. To date our research is the first to estimate the monsoon period using this method. Results indicate that a later monsoon onset date, as well as a later monsoon retrieval date have a small but significant negative impact on yields over the last 30 years. A delay in either the monsoon onset or retrieval of only 3-4 days reduced yields by .1% each. However, we did not find a statistical association between the length of the monsoon. Total rainfall during the monsoon period was found to have a small and positive impact on yields, even when controlling for extreme temperatures and low precipitation. We also found a strong positive effect of increased maximum daily temperatures during the monsoon period on tea yields. Spring maximum daily temperatures did not have a significant impact on tea yields. Our results have important implications for tea producer in China in the face of future global climate changes. |
| Keywords: | climate change, tea, agriculture, China, yield response model, monsoon, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170486&r=tra |
| By: | Valli, Vittorio; Saccone, Donatella (University of Turin) |
| Abstract: | In their period of rapid growth China and India have experienced profound structural transformations. The aim of the paper is to analyze the relation between structural change, the process of globalization and economic growth in the two great Asian countries, using a highly disaggregated dataset for the 1987 - 2009 period. While China had a longer and more intensive productivity growth than India, the latter had a somewhat more balanced growth. Both countries registered higher within - sectors gains in productivity than between - sectors ones. Our analysis also shows that there exist important feedbacks between structural change, globalization and economic growth over time. When the reallocation of labor is large, it may positively impact on the future rates of economic growth. At the same time, however, it seems that a too rapid economic growth may have hindered a smooth reallocation of labor. In China very rapid labor force movements between sectors and regions have contributed to social problems such as urban congestion, disproportionate rises in prices of housing in the cities, rapid increase in pollution, massive social problems for internal immigrants and a vast increase in social and economic inequalities. In India there has been a rising divide between urban and rural incomes and between workers employed in the formal and informal labor markets. New policies should be designed to favor labor movement across sectors and areas, to reduce the wage - productivity differentials and to integrate the informal sector in formal markets in India, in order to foster structural changes and enhance economic growth. However, if a too unbalanced economic growth has somewhat limited the extent of structural change, globalization has promoted it. High level of export, import and FDI not only has been related to higher rates of economic growth, but also to a deeper reallocation of resources across sectors, modifying the comparative advantage and reorganizing the production. |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201432&r=tra |
| By: | Giles, John; Mu, Ren |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the impact of land tenure insecurity on the migration decisions of China's rural residents. A simple model first frames the relationship among these variables and the probability that a reallocation of land will occur in the following year. After first demonstrating that a village leader's support for administrative land reallocation carries with it the risk of losing a future election, the paper exploits election-timing and village heterogeneity in lineage group composition and demographic change to identify the effect of land security. In response to an expected land reallocation in the following year, the probability that a rural resident migrates out of the county declines by 2.8 percentage points, which accounts for 17.5 percent of the annual share of village residents, aged 16 to 50, who worked as migrants during the period. This finding underscores the potential importance of secure property rights for facilitating labor market integration and the movement of labor out of agriculture. |
| Keywords: | Common Property Resource Development,Population Policies,Urban Housing,Political Economy,Municipal Housing and Land |
| Date: | 2014–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7080&r=tra |
| By: | Wang, Yumeng; Zhao, Shuoli; Yang, Zhihai; Liu, Donald J. |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the causal relationship between the prices of rice, crude oil, wheat, corn and soybean in China, using monthly price data over the period of January 1998 to December 2013. Employing an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test, we explore the cointegration relationship among the price variables. We estimate the ARDL long-run price relationship and the short-run error correction process (ARDL-EC). The results show that rice price are affected by crude oil, wheat, corn and soybean price as the forcing variables. Both the long-run and short-run price transmission elasticity estimates suggest the importance of crude oil price on the formation of rice prices in China. Furthermore, the adjustment speed coefficient is found to be statistically significant, supporting the notion that there is an error correction mechanism for maintaining the long-run price relationship facing short-run shocks. |
| Keywords: | food prices, crude oil price, long-run and short-run relationships, ARDL-EC model, Agricultural and Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:170578&r=tra |
| By: | Buła, Rafał |
| Abstract: | In the article the stability of pension funds market in Poland in 2007-2011 is appraised. Using the Hellwig method it is proved that main factors influencing ranks of pension funds are net assets and rate of return. |
| Keywords: | pension funds, Hellwig method |
| JEL: | G23 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:59706&r=tra |
| By: | Konečný, Tomáš; Babecká Kucharčuková, Oxana |
| Abstract: | Various approaches have been employed to explore the possibility of non-linear feedback between the real and financial sector. The present study focuses on the impact of real shocks on selected financial sector indicators, and the responses of the real economy to impulses emanating from the financial sector. We estimate the threshold Bayesian VAR with block restrictions and the credit spread as a threshold variable using the example of the Czech Republic. We find that while there is no evidence of asymmetric effects across positive and negative shocks, the responses of the financial sector to real shocks tend to differ in low and high credit spread regimes. Responses in the opposite direction (i.e. from the financial sector to the real economy) are procyclical and similar irrespective of regime. A positive shock to credit and a negative shock to the NPL increase industrial production over the entire time horizon. The direct impact of foreign factors on lending seems to be rather limited. JEL Classification: E51, C15, C32 |
| Keywords: | credit, non-linearities, small open economy |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20141730&r=tra |
| By: | Kubasik, Jerzy |
| Abstract: | So far no general exclusive frequency licenses have been granted in Poland through an auction. In the Regulatory Strategy until 2015, President of the Office of Electronic Commu-nications pointed to auction as a method of choosing companies which will be granted fre-quency licenses from 800 MHz band (so called digital dividend). The auction has been sched-uled to take place at the turn of 2013 and 2014, and is considered the biggest event of 2014 on the Polish telecommunications market. The article presents the main assumptions of the first ever spectrum auction in Poland on the basis of materials for auction assumptions' consulta-tions, auction documentation, opinions of entities involved that have been submitted during consultations as well as the position of the President of UKE. The author focuses on threats to execution of the auction itself as well as implementation of its results. The text is preceded by a short description of the Polish telecommunications market, especially in terms frequencies owned by the main players on this market, including their joint ventures and capital connec-tions. |
| Keywords: | regulation,spectrum auction,mobile services,LTE |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:itse14:101418&r=tra |
| By: | Vassil, Kristjan (University of Tartu); Eamets, Raul (University of Tartu); Mõtsmees, Pille (University of Tartu) |
| Abstract: | Estonia ranks consistently on top of the list of countries with the largest gender pay gap. However, irrespective of abundant aggregate level evidence, little is known what motivates the gap at the individual level. In this paper we precisely address the issue of gender pay gap at the individual level. We examine how large is the gender pay gap in actual and expected wages and how it can be explained. We use a rich dataset from Estonian Labour Force Survey on actual wages, and the data from CV Keskus on people's wage expectations. Findings show that education and ethnicity are primary sources for gender based wage discrimination hinting at structural cleavages in Estonian society. Results have major policy implications for other multi-lingual countries with similar historical background. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap, Estonia, expected wage gap, actual wage gap |
| JEL: | J16 J31 |
| Date: | 2014–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8604&r=tra |
| By: | Trinh, Long; Sonobe, Tetsushi |
| Abstract: | There has been an increasing interest among economists in the impact of management practices on firm’s productivity. This paper explores how business practices affect firm productivity by using Vietnam’s bi-annual surveys of small firms conducted from 2006 to 2011. We constructed a simple weighted business practice index from 8 indicators. This index is simple but rather suitable for small and medium firms in developing countries. To examine the role of business practices in determining firm performance, production function and determinants of business practice adoption are estimated using the GMM-system method, which allows us to control for the endogeneity of production input, business practices index, and other factors. The results indicate that business practice index has a positive and statistically significant impact on firm productivity, employment and sales growth. As business practice index increases by 1 standard deviation (e.g. by 0.194 points over 1 and 0.173 points), the firm's value added increases by 19.1% to 24.0%. There is no evidence that the education level of the business owners/managers, percentage of employees with college degree on firm productivity. The results suggest that education may have indirect effects on productivity through business practice index. The effect of business practice on firm performance is found to vary across different sub-samples.. Both direct and indirect effects of competition lose their significance when we separately estimate production functions for each group of firms. We also find that for whole sample and for sole proprietorship businesses, the adoption of business practice in last period have a positive and statistically significant effects on the adoption of business practice in this period. However, total factor productivity (estimated from production function without business practice index) in the previous period does not have a strong impact on a firm’s adoption of business practice in this period while previous revenue and value added have a statistically significant impact. |
| Keywords: | business practice, dynamic panel data, productivity growth, small medium enterprises, microenterprise, Vietnam, Industrial Organization, Production Economics, Productivity Analysis, |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea14:169792&r=tra |
| By: | Phuong, Nguyen Van; Cuong, Tran Huu; Mergenthaler, Marcus |
| Abstract: | In this study, Vietnamese households’ expenditure on dairy products for home consumption is analyzed using the latest Vietnamese Household Living Standard Survey datasets in 2010 (VHLSS 2010). Vietnam is the 20th most important importer of dairy products in the world and it is foreseeable that the demand continues rising. This makes Vietnam a highly potential market for dairy exporting countries and for investors in the dairy industry. The aim of the paper is to analyze the effects of socio-economic and demographic variables on Vietnamese households’ decision to purchase dairy products and how much to spend per capita on these items. A double-hurdle model is estimated to accommodate non-normal and heteroskedastic errors for milk and milk products. The parameter estimates for the demand decision variables are presented in the paper. The results suggest that socio-economic and demographic variables effect household expenditure on dairy products. This may help policy makers to implement policies related to dairy industry, nutrition and food security. The results also are useful for dairy products marketers in planning and developing strategies. |
| Keywords: | Dairy products, double-hurdle model, household expenditure, VHLSS, Vietnam, Consumer/Household Economics, International Development, Livestock Production/Industries, |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gewi14:187303&r=tra |