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on Transition Economics |
| By: | Bachev, Hrabrin |
| Abstract: | The goal of this study is to unpack sustainability in terms of understanding and evaluation using as a case Bulgarian agriculture. A hierarchical system for assessing agrarian sustainability in Bulgaria at national, regional, sub-sectoral, ecosystem and farm level is proposed. It includes 3 aspects(pillars), 17 principles, 35 criteria, and 46 indicators and reference values for evaluating sustainability as well as approach for their integration and interpretation. Assessment is made of agrarian sustainability in the country at various level using aggregate macro and farm level micro data. The assessment has found out that there is a considerable differentiation in the level of integral and aspects sustainability of different type of farms, ecosystems, subsectors and regions. Nevertheless, results on the integral agrarian sustainability based on macro aggregate and micro farm data are quite similar. The later indicates that both approaches are reliable and could be simultaneously used according to the level of analysis, needs of decision makers, and available data. Major factors encouraging improving economic sustainability are market demand and price; direct state subsidies; market competition; financial capability; participation in public support programs; possibility of benefitting immediately; possibility of benefitting in the near future; tax preferences; possibility of benefitting in the long term; and integration with buyers of farm products. Main factors encouraging the enhancement of social sustainability are personal convictions and satisfaction; social recognition of individual contribution; immediate benefits for other people and groups; regional community initiatives and pressure; access to advisory services; European Union policy; and existing regional problems and risks. Important factors encouraging environmental sustainability are problems and risks existing at the global scale; official regulations, standards, and norms; existing regional problems and risks; and European Union policies. Public policies and instruments that improve economic sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture include: direct area-based payments; national top-ups for products and livestock; modernization of agricultural holdings; green payments; support for semi-market farms. At the same time the impact of national and European policies on social and environmental sustainability is relatively weak. Having in mind the importance of holistic assessments of this kind for improving agrarian sustainability, farm management and agrarian policies, they are to be expended and their precision and representation increased. The latter requires a closer cooperation between and participation of all interested parties as well as improvement of the precision through enlargement of collected statistical data, number of surveyed farms, and incorporating more “objective” data from field tests and surveys, monitoring, expertise of professionals in the area, etc. |
| Keywords: | sustainability, assessment, economic, social, ecological, agriculture, Bulgaria |
| JEL: | Q1 Q12 Q13 Q15 Q18 Q2 Q3 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:92752&r=all |
| By: | Pleskachev, Yuriy (Плескачев, Юрий) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Ponomarev, Yuriy (Пономарев, Юрий) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) |
| Abstract: | Entrepreneurial activity and especially emergence of new companies, according to international literature, has a positive effect on GDP and other important macroeconomic parameters. Increasing budget efficiency spending and economy growth rates above the world average are have very high priorities in Russia and are closely connected to the questions of properly stimulating the emergence and development of new companies. The empirical model presented in this paper allows evaluating the influence of various factors on the emergence of new companies in Russia. |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:031907&r=all |
| By: | Sokolov, Ilya (Соколов, Илья) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Khudko, Elizaveta (Худько, Елизавета) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Tischenko, Tatiana (Тищенко, Татьяна) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Kireeva, Anastasia (Киреева, Анастасия) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Moguchev, Nikita (Могучев, Никита) (Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy) |
| Abstract: | One of the most important issues for the effective functioning of the Russian economy is associated with the activity of state development institutions. In this study, the authors try to evaluate the impact that the development institutions have on the economy of Russia. To solve this problem, the authors have developed a methodology for assessing the effectiveness of the activities of development institutions, which was tested at three development institutions. |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:031912&r=all |
| By: | VU, Tien Manh; Yamada, Hiroyuki |
| Abstract: | We examined the effects of Vietnamese enterprise zones on local businesses based on different patterns of place-based policies as well as the ownership structure of the zone infrastructure developers (ZIDs). We constructed a panel of communes during 2000–2007 using a census survey of firms having more than nine employees and a census of zones and zone-based firms.We found that place-based policies led to growth in the number of jobs and firms in the communes where enterprise zones were located, even after excluding zone-based firms. Our findings also suggest that privately owned ZIDs worked best under corporate-tax incentives, while zones with a designated central government agency as the ZID had adverse spillover effects on business development in neighboring communes of the same district. |
| Keywords: | Enterprise zone, Place-based policy, Infrastructure, Private sector, Local business, O14, O18, O25, L53, L52 |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:agi:wpaper:00000153&r=all |
| By: | Lopatina, Marina (Лопатина, Марина) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Lyashok, Victor (Ляшок, Виктор) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) |
| Abstract: | One of the main mechanisms by which the state regulates the size of wages, is the value of the minimum wage. From the beginning of 2018, first of all, regional coefficients were excluded from the minimum wage, and secondly, the federal minimum wage was raised to the level of the subsistence minimum of the able-bodied population. In the light of the reform of 2018, it is important to analyze the mechanisms of the influence of federal and regional minimum wages on the labor market and the level of poverty. |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:031902&r=all |
| By: | Huiwen Lai; Keith E. Maskus; Lei Yang |
| Abstract: | We study how provincial-level enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRs) affects Chinese firms’ decisions regarding exit, export, and the channels through which to receive technology transfer. Our findings provide insights into how variations in IPRs enforcement alter productivity. Our model combines the standard theory of heterogeneous firms with the endogenous choices of those firms concerning how they absorb international technologies through imitation or licensing. We show that, in this setting, the exit and export cutoff productivities differ from those in the standard environment, leading to a different sorting mechanism. We also predict that stronger IPRs change the decisions firms make concerning their mode of technology transfer, further altering their productivity and export possibilities. Empirical tests based on a comprehensive dataset of Chinese firms from 2000 to 2006 support the model predictions. |
| Keywords: | Intellectual Property Enforcement, Exports, Firm Heterogeneity |
| JEL: | D23 F13 F14 O34 |
| Date: | 2018–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsc:rsceui:2018/39&r=all |
| By: | Avraamova, Elena (Араамова, Елена) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Loginov, Dmitriy (Логинов, Дмитрий) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Titov, Vladimir (Титов, Владимир) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) |
| Abstract: | The aim of the study is to assess the availability of development resources for various socio-economic group. The main resources of development are the following: availability of permanent employment, salary rise, growth of professional status (vertical labour mobility), increase in the level and quality of education, improvement of social status, development of social capital. The information base of the study is the survey conducted basing on the representative sample for whole Russia and a series of in-depth interviews with representatives of the population groups with different levels of resource availability. The analysis of empirical data allowed to calculate the indices of various development resources and to describe socio-economic characteristics of the population groups that differ in the values of corresponding indices. |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:031904&r=all |
| By: | Vedev, Aleksey (Ведев, Алексей) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Berezinskaya, Olga (Березинская, Ольга) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Schelokova, Dina (Щёлокова, Дина) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) |
| Abstract: | The work is devoted to the analysis of the dynamics of investments in fixed capital and the problems of their resource provision in the regions of the Russian Federation. The relevance of the work is determined by the weak pace of the Russian economy’s exit from the investment pause that began in 2014, as well as the tightening of restrictions on the development of the investment process. Under these conditions, the possibilities for expedient support of the investment process in the Russian economy, on the one hand, are decreasing, and on the other hand, are becoming an increasingly important factor in the revival of investment activity. In this regard, an analysis of possible scenarios for activating the investment process in the Russian economy, which would take into account regional and resource aspects, can become productive. |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:031908&r=all |
| By: | Pablo D'Erasmo; Igor Livshits; Koen Schoors (-) |
| Abstract: | Banking regulation routinely designates some assets as safe and thus does not require banks to hold any additional capital to protect against losses from these assets. A typical such safe asset is domestic government debt. There are numerous examples of banking regulation treating domestic government bonds as “safe,” even when there is clear risk of default on these bonds. We show, in a parsimonious model, that this failure to recognize the riskiness of government debt allows (and induces) domestic banks to “gamble” with depositors’ funds by purchasing risky government bonds (and assets closely correlated with them). A sovereign default in this environment then results in a banking crisis. Critically, we show that permitting banks to gamble this way lowers the cost of borrowing for the government. Thus, if the borrower and the regulator are the same entity (the government), that entity has an incentive to ignore the riskiness of the sovereign bonds. We present empirical evidence in support of the key mechanism we are highlighting, drawing on the experience of Russia in the run-up to its 1998 default and on the recent Eurozone debt crisis. |
| Keywords: | Banking; Sovereign default; Prudential regulation; Financial crisis |
| JEL: | G01 G28 F34 |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:19/964&r=all |
| By: | Pakhomov, Alexander (Пахомов, Александр) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Makarov, Andrey (Макаров, Андрей) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Bagdasaryan, Kniaz (Багдасарян, Княз) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) |
| Abstract: | This working paper reviews the main directions of international cooperation between the Federal subjects of Russia and other states. Current inter-regional and cross-border cooperation of the Federal subjects of Russia is carried out with various groups of countries. We have studied the common features and peculiarities between Federal subjects of Russia on one side and European Union itself with separate European countries on another side, as well as with member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The study shows that international cooperation with foreign countries has a positive impact on the economic sectors development and foreign trade activity of Federal subjects of Russia, as well as helps to deal with numerous social and humanitarian problems, including education, tourism, etc. |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:021930&r=all |
| By: | Sun, Xiaonan |
| Abstract: | In 2007, China implemented a policy requiring automobile producers to distribute through at most three trade intermediaries and list their intermediaries on a registry. Motivated by the registration requirements and granularity in the order sizes handled by most intermediaries, this paper develops a model to describe the matches between automakers and intermediaries.The model shows market division arises endogenously due to the regulation. It creates inefficiencies in matching and double marginalization. The model predictions coincide with a number of stylized facts: a strong decline in the number of auto intermediaries, assortative matching, export price increases for intermediaries, and substantial churning in the sets of intermediaries registered by the automakers. Welfare analysis in terms of total profit shows that this regulation benefits automakers, especially those relatively less efficient ones while intermediaries are made worse off. |
| Keywords: | trade intermediary, matching, export regulation, F13, F14 |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:agi:wpaper:00000156&r=all |
| By: | Kara Reynolds; Tatiana Yanguas |
| Abstract: | In April 2017, a WTO panel ruled that China’s anti-dumping investigation into imports of dissolving cellulose pulp from Canada violated the WTO’s Anti-dumping Agreement. The panel found that China’s description of the parallel price trends of dumped imports and domestic products failed to explain their finding that the dumped imports caused the decline in domestic prices. The ruling perhaps should not have surprised anyone as the WTO had made similar findings in disputes involving two previous Chinese anti-dumping investigations. This paper explores to what degree “parallel price trends” can be used as a valid methodology to determine price depression, and whether it is the methodology itself that is problematic or China’s implementation of that methodology that has caused it to lose three disputes over the past five years. |
| Keywords: | Anti-dumping, WTO dispute, parallel price trend, and cellulose pulp |
| Date: | 2018–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rsc:rsceui:2018/59&r=all |
| By: | Mustafa Caglayan (Heriot-Watt University); Oleksandr Talavera (University of Birmingham); Lin Xiong (Robert Gordon University) |
| Abstract: | We examine factors that affect borrowing and lending when borrowers have experienced one or more failed funding applications. Using a unique dataset of 1,2 million loan applications from a peer-to-peer (P2P) loan platform in China, we investigate whether decision to apply varies with respect to the number of previous consecutive failures. Our results suggest that borrowers with better education are not likely to apply after a failed attempt. Repeat applicants provide less information in their loan narratives and are likely to pay higher interest rates per loan. We also find that females are discouraged early on. In relation to lender behavior, similar preferences apply across those who had one or more previous rejections as they prefer applications with high credit ratings and high income. Finally, our results are generally similar for both consumer and business loans. |
| Keywords: | Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending; Discouraged borrowers; Listing outcomes; Information problem; Fintech; China |
| JEL: | G14 G32 M10 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bir:birmec:19-01&r=all |
| By: | Maleva, Tatiana (Малева, Татьяна) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Burdyak, Aleksandra (Бурдяк, Александра) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration); Eliseeva, Marina (Елисеева, Марина) (The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration) |
| Abstract: | This preprint is devoted to two topics from the scope of the current state of the social structure - comparing the situation of employees of the budget and private sector and analyzing the restrictions (deprivations) of representatives of different strata. State employees and non-state employees are studied from the point of view of material and material status, social and professional status and subjective well-being in dynamics for 2015-2017. The features of these two groups of people employed in the middle classes according to an integral feature are also described. |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:031903&r=all |
| By: | Esin Yoruk |
| Abstract: | Based on theories from entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship literatures, this paper investigates how the fit between micro level entrepreneurial opportunity exploitation and macro level entrepreneurial influence sales and employment growth in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) firms. A multiple case study analysis contrasts young entrepreneurial and established intrapreneurial firms to the established conservative firms. Our findings for entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial ventures are in stark contrast to those of conservative firms. Not only entrepreneurial but also intrapreneurial firms are better at exploiting micro-level opportunities in the technology and market domains empowered by their intra-organisational competences. Moreover, they may purposefully select what macro-level opportunity to exploit, a process which contributes to their higher sales and employment growth. In other words, they are able to create the fit between micro and macro environments to generate high growth in stark contrast to conservative firms. |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:see:wpaper:2019:1&r=all |