nep-tra New Economics Papers
on Transition Economics
Issue of 2020‒09‒21
eight papers chosen by
Maksym Obrizan
Kyiv School of Economics

  1. The Competitiveness and Complementarity of Arms Trade of Countries along the "Belt and Road" and its Dynamic Evolution: Based on Complex Network Analysis Method By Hu, Yuanhong
  2. Constructing a rental housing index and identifying market segmentation in the case of Beijing, China By Song, Zisheng; Wilhelmsson, Mats; Yang, Zan
  3. Economic Crises and Mortality Among the Elderly: Evidence from Two Russian Crises By Khvan, Margarita; Smorodenkova, Elizaveta; Yakovlev, Evgeny
  4. Heterogeneous Environmental Regulations, R&D Innovation and Manufacturing Enterprises' Export Technological Sophistication By Hu, Yuanhong
  5. Firm efficiency, foreign ownership and CEO gender in corrupt environments By Hanousek, Jan; Shamshur, Anastasiya; Tresl, Jiri
  6. Monetary Stimulus Amidst the Infrastructure Investment Spree: Evidence from China's Loan-Level Data By Kaiji Chen; Haoyu Gao; Patrick C. Higgins; Daniel F. Waggoner; Tao Zha
  7. Bank Diversification and Focus in Disruptive Times: China, 2007–2018 By Minzhi Wu; Emili Tortosa-Ausina
  8. Occupational Dualism and Intergenerational Educational Mobility in the Rural Economy: Evidence from China and India By Emran, M.; Ferreira, Francisco; Jiang, Yajing; Sun, Yan

  1. By: Hu, Yuanhong
    Abstract: This paper uses network analysis to study the competitiveness and complementarity and its dynamic change of arms trade among countries along the "Belt and Road" during 2004-2016. The research shows that: (1) The arms trade relations of the countries along the "belt and road" are increasingly strengthened, the trade network density is increased, and the trade centralization trend is obvious. Trade competition intensifies and is greater than trade complementarity. (2) In terms of the complementary relationship of arms trade, there are two important national blocks. One is an export-oriented block composed of Russia and some central-eastern European countries. The other is a compatible type block composed of China, India and other countries. (3) In terms of arms trade competitiveness, the countries along "Belt and Road" are divided into three competing groups: the first group is composed of Russia, Israel and some central-eastern European countries; The second group is composed of China, India and other emerging arms producing and selling countries. The third is a wide range of other countries along the "Belt and Road".
    Keywords: Belt and Road,Arms Trade,Complex Network,Trade Competitiveness,Trade Complementarity
    JEL: F19 F50
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:222984&r=all
  2. By: Song, Zisheng (Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology); Wilhelmsson, Mats (Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology); Yang, Zan (Hang Lung Centre for Real Estate Studies Department of Construction Management Tsinghua University, Beijing, China)
    Abstract: Although the rental market is relatively small in China, rental housing is an integral part of the housing market as a whole and plays a vital role in reducing pressure from the owner-occupied housing sector. In general, knowledge about the functioning of the rental market and rental dynamics over space and time is relatively limited. The rent index is a useful indicator of the variation of rent and the rental housing market dynamics. Therefore, the primary aim of this paper is to construct a rental-housing index by employing the hedonic model approach. Clustering analysis will be used to identify different rental housing market segmentations. The case study is the rental housing market in Beijing, China, over the period 2016-2018. In summary, we can conclude that a more scientific approach to segmenting the housing market better accounts for the heterogeneity in the market than traditional administrative boundaries.
    Keywords: Rent Index; Hedonic Model; Cluster Analysis; Accessibility
    JEL: C43 C51 C52 R30 R32
    Date: 2020–09–16
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:kthrec:2020_010&r=all
  3. By: Khvan, Margarita (New Economic School, Moscow); Smorodenkova, Elizaveta (New Economic School, Moscow); Yakovlev, Evgeny (New Economic School, Moscow)
    Abstract: We assess the short-term effects of the two recent economic crises, the Great Recession and the collapse of the USSR, on the elderly mortality in Russia. According to our study, crises have led to an increase in mortality with quantitatively similar elasticities of death with respect to GDP fall for both events. Further analysis of the Great Recession suggests that income depreciation, limited access to medical services, and an increase in alcohol consumption are responsible for the rise in mortality. While increases at a higher rate compared to overall mortality, alcohol-related mortality explains a relatively small part of total mortality rise.
    Keywords: mortality, crises
    JEL: J1 H1 I1
    Date: 2020–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13540&r=all
  4. By: Hu, Yuanhong
    Abstract: Based on the combined data of China Patent Database, China Industrial Firm Database and China Customs Trade Database from 2004-2010, this paper investigates the impact of heterogeneous environment regulation on the export technological sophistication of manufacturing enterprises. The results show that: the impact of control-type environmental regulation on enterprises' export technological sophistication is U-shaped, and has negative effect on mixed trade enterprises, eastern enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises. The impact of incentive-type environmental regulation on the enterprises' export technological sophistication is inverted Ushaped, and has positive effect on processing trade enterprises, mixed trade enterprises, domestic and foreign-funded enterprises. The impact of participative-type environmental regulation on the enterprises' export technological sophistication has an inverted U-shaped characteristic and has a positive effect on all kinds of trade pattern and ownership of enterprises. The result of mechanism analysis shows that control and participative environmental regulation affect enterprises' export technological sophistication through fundamental innovation and practical innovation, while incentive environmental regulation also affects enterprises' export technological sophistication through design innovation. Considering environmental governance issues has clear policy implications for enhancing the R&D innovation of the whole industrial chain and improving the export competitiveness of China's manufacturing enterprises.
    Keywords: Environmental Regulation,R&D Innovation,Export Technological Sophistication,DVA,Manufacturing
    JEL: F14 O44 F18
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:222983&r=all
  5. By: Hanousek, Jan; Shamshur, Anastasiya; Tresl, Jiri
    Abstract: We study the effects of corruption on firm efficiency using a unique dataset of private firms from 14 Central and Eastern European countries from 2000 to 2013. We find that an environment characterized by a high level of corruption has an adverse effect on firm efficiency. This effect is stronger for firms with a lower propensity to behave corruptly, such as foreign-controlled firms and firms managed by female CEOs, while local firms and firms with male CEOs are not disadvantaged. We also find that an environment characterized by considerable heterogeneity in the perception of corruption is associated with an increase in firm efficiency. This effect is particularly strong for foreign-controlled firms from low corruption countries, while no effect is observed for firms managed by a female CEO.
    Keywords: Efficiency; Corruption; Ownership structure; Foreign ownership; CEO gender; Firms; Panel data; Stochastic frontier; Europe
    JEL: C33 D24 G32 L60 L80 M21
    Date: 2019–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:101027&r=all
  6. By: Kaiji Chen; Haoyu Gao; Patrick C. Higgins; Daniel F. Waggoner; Tao Zha
    Abstract: We study the impacts of the 2009 monetary stimulus and its interaction with infrastructure spending on credit allocation. We develop a two-stage estimation approach and apply it to China's loan-level data that covers all sectors in the economy. We find that except for the manufacturing sector, monetary stimulus itself did not favor SOEs over non-SOEs in credit access. Infrastructure investment driven by non-monetary factors, however, enhanced the monetary transmission to bank credit allocated to LGFVs in infrastructure and at the same time weakened the impacts of monetary stimulus on bank credit to non-SOEs in sectors other than infrastructure.
    JEL: C13 C3 E02 E5
    Date: 2020–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27763&r=all
  7. By: Minzhi Wu (Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain); Emili Tortosa-Ausina (IVIE, Valencia and Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain)
    Abstract: Bank diversification and focus strategies are becoming crucial issues for commercial banks’ future viability, due to their links with the emergence of new products, services and competitors. We investigate the effects of such strategies for Chinese banks during 2007–2018, a particularly turbulent period for both macroeconomic reasons (the impact of the 2007/08 international financial crisis) as well as others related to innovation in the industry—such as the rise of FinTech. For this, we construct measures of diversification from both the two main perspectives taken into account so far by the literature, namely, incomebased indicators and asset-based indicators. In the case of income-based indicators, we consider further categories—non-interest income ratio, the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, and the entropy index. We evaluate the impact of the different indicators considered on measures of risk and profitability, and whether this impact varies depending on the type of bank—state-owned banks, national shareholding commercial banks, and city commercial banks. We argue that the links can be too intricate to be captured by linear models and, complementing the previous literature, evaluate them considering semiparametric specifications. Overall results indicate that Chinese banks do not benefit to a great deal in terms of profitability and risk by following neither income nor asset diversification strategies, although the former are higher than the latter.
    Keywords: bank, China, diversification, focus, semiparametric regression
    JEL: G21 G28 C14
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jau:wpaper:2020/21&r=all
  8. By: Emran, M.; Ferreira, Francisco; Jiang, Yajing; Sun, Yan
    Abstract: This paper extends the Becker-Tomes model of intergenerational educational mobility to a rural economy characterized by farm-nonfarm occupational dualism and provide a comparative analysis of rural China and rural India. The model provides a micro-foundation for the widely used linear-in-levels estimating equation. Returns to education for parents and productivity of financial investment in children's education determine relative mobility, as measured by the slope, while the intercept depends, among other factors, on the degree of persistence in nonfarm occupations. Unlike many existing studies based on coresident samples, the estimates do not suffer from truncation bias. The sons in rural India faced lower educational mobility compared with the sons in rural China in the 1970s to 1990s. To understand the role of genetic inheritance, Altonji et al. (2005) sensitivity analysis is combined with the evidence on intergenerational correlation in cognitive ability in economics and behavioral genetics literature. The observed persistence can be due solely to genetic correlations in China, but not in India. Fathers' nonfarm occupation and education were complementary in determining a sons' schooling in India, but separable in China. There is evidence of emerging complementarity for the younger cohorts in rural China. Structural change in favor of the nonfarm sector contributed to educational inequality in rural India. Evidence from supplementary data on economic mechanisms suggests that the model provides plausible explanations for the contrasting roles of occupational dualism in intergenerational educational mobility in rural India and rural China.
    Keywords: Educational Mobility, Rural Economy, Occupational Dualism, Farm-Nonfarm, Complementarity, Coresidency Bias, China, India
    JEL: J62 O1
    Date: 2020–07–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:101559&r=all

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