nep-tra New Economics Papers
on Transition Economics
Issue of 2020‒11‒02
ten papers chosen by
Maksym Obrizan
Kyiv School of Economics

  1. The misallocation in the Chinese land market By Fei, Xuan
  2. Re-Examining Supplier-Induced Demand in Health Care: Comparisons among Patients Affiliated and Not Affiliated with Healthcare Professionals in China By Si, Yafei; Zhou, Zhongliang; Su, Min; Hu, Han; Yang, Zesen; Chen, Xi
  3. Portfolio Optimization and Diversification in China: Policy Implications for Vietnam and other Emerging Markets By Vo, Duc
  4. INDUSTRIAL CLUSTERS, NETWORKS AND RESILIENCE TO THE COVID-19 SHOCK IN CHINA By Ruochen Dai; Dilip Mookherjee; Yingyue Quan; Xiaobo Zhang
  5. Factors Influencing Cost Overruns in Construction Projects of International Contractors in Vietnam By Quoc Vu, Thong; Phu Pham, Cuong; Anh Nguyen, Thu; Thanh Nguyen, Phong; Thanh Phan, Phuong; Le Hoang Thuy To Nguyen, Quyen
  6. Evaluation of governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture By Bachev, Hrabrin
  7. The Disparity of Revenue and Expenditure among Subnational Governments in Vietnam By Vo, Duc
  8. Problems in audit and reporting in Bulgaria’s forestry By Georgieva, Daniela; Bankova, Diana
  9. Money Demand: The Guide to Monetary Policy in Russia, 1997-2020 By Olga Khon
  10. Inequality, institutions, and cooperation By Thomas Markussen; Smriti Sharma; Saurabh Singhal; Finn Tarp

  1. By: Fei, Xuan
    Abstract: This paper proposes a spatial equilibrium model to quantify welfare losses from land market distortions in China. In the model, heterogeneous firms in a variety of sectors choose their locations across regions with costly trade, frictional labor migration, and land market distortions. We match land transaction and firm-level survey data to estimate land market distortions for firms. Misallocation arises when similar firms are faced with land prices that effectively prevent productive firms from establishing in large cities where they can benefit from agglomeration forces and access to higher productivity. Our framework incorporating land market distortions also helps clarify the mystery of China’s undersized cities, a phenomenon noted by Au and Henderson (2006) and Chauvin et al. (2017). Our estimates suggest large negative effects of land policies on the economic welfare in China. We end with a counterfactual exercise that suggests that a coordinated land and labor migration reform would generate welfare gains and reduce regional inequality.
    JEL: F16 L22 L51 O47 R14 R30
    Date: 2020–10–21
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bof:bofitp:2020_023&r=all
  2. By: Si, Yafei (University of New South Wales); Zhou, Zhongliang (Xi’an Jiaotong University); Su, Min (Inner Mongolia University); Hu, Han (Xi’an Jiaotong University); Yang, Zesen (Tsinghua University); Chen, Xi (Yale University)
    Abstract: Doing "more" in healthcare can be a major threat to the delivery of high-quality health care. This study used coarsened exact matching to test the hypothesis of supplier-induced demand (SID) by comparing health care utilization and expenditures between patients affiliated with healthcare professionals and their counterpart patients not affiliated with healthcare professionals. Using the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS) in 2014, we identified 806 patients affiliated with healthcare professionals and 22,788 patients not affiliated with healthcare professionals. The matched outpatient proportion of patients not affiliated with healthcare professionals was 0.6% higher (p=.754) than that of their counterparts, and the matched inpatient proportion was 1.1% lower (p =.167). Patients not affiliated with healthcare professionals paid significantly more (680 CNY or 111 USD, p
    Keywords: supplier-induced demand, health care utilization, healthcare professionals, China
    JEL: I11 D82 I12 D90
    Date: 2020–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13800&r=all
  3. By: Vo, Duc
    Abstract: This article is conducted to examine risk, return, and portfolio optimization at the industry level in China over the period 2007–2016. On the ground of the classical Markowitz framework for portfolio optimization, the mean-semivariance optimization framework is established for China’s stock market at the industry level. Findings from this study indicate that healthcare sector plays a significant role among 10 industries in China on a stand-alone basis. In addition, a significant change of rankings among the sectors in term of risk is found when the mean-semivariance optimization framework is used. We also find that utilizing this new framework helps improve the optimal portfolios in relation to performance, measured by Sortino ratio, and diversification. A simulation technique, generally known as resampling method, is also utilized to check the robustness of the estimates. While the use of this resampling method appears not to improve the performance of optimal portfolios compared with the mean-semivariance framework for China, there is a remarkable advance in diversification of the optimal portfolios. Implications for investors and the governments in Vietnam and other emerging markets have emerged from the study.
    Keywords: China, mean-semivariance, portfolio optimization, resample
    JEL: G2 G21 G28
    Date: 2019–09–19
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:103276&r=all
  4. By: Ruochen Dai (Central University of Finance and Economics); Dilip Mookherjee (Boston University); Yingyue Quan (Peking University); Xiaobo Zhang (Peking University and IFPRI)
    Abstract: We examine how exposure of Chinese firms to the Covid-19 shock varied with a cluster index (measuring spatial agglomeration of firms in related industries) at the county level. Two data sources are used: entry flows of newly registered firms in the entire country, and an entrepreneur survey regarding operation of existing firms. Both show greater resilience in counties with a higher cluster index, after controlling for industry dummies and local infection rates, besides county and time dummies in the entry data. Reliance of clusters on informal entrepreneur hometown networks and closer proximity to suppliers and customers help explain these findings.
    Keywords: Clusters, Covid-19, China, Firms, Social Networks
    JEL: J12 J16 D31 I3
    Date: 2020–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bos:iedwpr:dp-353&r=all
  5. By: Quoc Vu, Thong; Phu Pham, Cuong; Anh Nguyen, Thu; Thanh Nguyen, Phong; Thanh Phan, Phuong; Le Hoang Thuy To Nguyen, Quyen
    Abstract: A construction project is a designed product made up of labors, materials, and installations in the project positioned on the ground and may include the underground and ground section, and the section in water or on the water surface. It is a civil, industrial, transport, agricultural and rural development, infrastructure, or some other. A key phase in the life cycle of these construction projects is the implementation when building products are made directly with workers, equipment, materials, and managers. If there is a lack of management experience, information, and problem-solving solutions to tackle the risks faced by contractors, especially foreign ones, will fail in controlling the project’s cost. This study was conducted with investigations, discussions, and evaluation of the factors that lead to cost overruns in the construction projects of international contractors in Vietnam. The principal component analysis (PCA) showed that those factors that influence cost overruns these construction projects fall into five general groups, including factors related to (i) the owners, (ii) the foreign contractors, (iii) the subcontractors and suppliers, (iv) state management, and (v) the project itself. Besides, the study proposes solutions to limit cost overruns in construction projects and improve the profitability of international contractors in Vietnam.
    Keywords: Cost Overrun, Financial Management, Foreign Contractor, Project Management, International Management
    JEL: F39 G39 M16
    Date: 2020–07–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:103435&r=all
  6. By: Bachev, Hrabrin
    Abstract: A need to include “the fourth” Governance pillar in the concept for understanding and the assessment system of (overall and) agrarian sustainability is increasingly justified in academic literature and finds place in the frameworks of government, international, private, etc. organizations In Bulgaria, like in many other countries, practically there are no comprehensive assessments of the governance sustainability of agriculture and its importance for the overall agrarian development. This study tries to fill the gap and suggests a holistic framework for understanding and assessing the governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture. The newly elaborated approach is “tested” in a large-scale study for assessing the governance sustainability of country’s agriculture at national, sectoral, regional, eco-system and farm levels. The study has proved that it is important to include the “missing” Governance Pillar in the assessment of the Integral sustainability of agriculture and sustainability of agro-systems of various type. Multiple Principles, Criteria and Indicators assessment of the Governance sustainability of Bulgarian agriculture indicates that the Overall Governance Sustainability is at a “Good” but very close to the “Satisfactory” level. Besides, there is a considerable differentiation in the level of Integral Governance sustainability of different agro-systems in the country. What is more, the individual indicators with the highest and lowest sustainability values determine the “critical” factors enhancing and deterring the particular and integral Governance sustainability of evaluated agro-system. Last but not least important, results on the integral agrarian sustainability assessment based on micro (farm) and macro (statistical, etc.) data show some discrepancies which have to be taken into consideration in the analysis and interpretation, while assessment indicators, methods and data sources further improved. Having in mind the importance of holistic assessments of this kind for improving the agrarian sustainability in general, and the Governance sustainability of agriculture in particular, they are to be expended and their precision and representation increased.
    Keywords: governance sustainability, assessment, agriculture, subsectors, agro-regions, agro-ecosystems, farming organizations, Bulgaria
    JEL: Q1 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q18
    Date: 2020–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:103478&r=all
  7. By: Vo, Duc
    Abstract: Fiscal decentralization has attracted attention from government, academic studies, and international institutions with the aims of enhancing economic growth in recent years. One of the difficult issues is to measure satisfactorily the degree of fiscal decentralization across countries. The fiscal decentralisation index, the first of its kind, was recently developed in 2010. This newly developed index accounts for both fiscal autonomy and fiscal importance of subnational governments. We argue that while Vo’s index is an advance on current practice, it is still not perfect as it assumes there is no dispersion of revenue and expenditure across regions. In response to this weakness, fiscal entropy and fiscal inequality measures are developed using information theory. It is shown how fiscal inequality can be decomposed regionally and hierarchically. These ideas are illustrated with an emerging country data— Vietnam—pertaining to the national, provincial, and local levels of governments.
    Keywords: Autonomy, fiscal decentralisation index, theil’s entropy, vietnam
    JEL: H1 H11 H29 H53
    Date: 2019–07–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:103277&r=all
  8. By: Georgieva, Daniela; Bankova, Diana
    Abstract: An object of analysis in the paper is the quality of the information in the audit reports of forestry in Bulgaria, as a basis for attracting investments, increasing the confidence in the enterprises and achieving sustainability of the industry in macro level. The subject of analysis are the annual financial statements of public and private forestry for the period 2007 - 2017. A priority objective is to analyze the auditor's opinions on the annual financial statements of the Bulgarian forestry. An additional objective is to analyze the overall reporting of the financial-economic status and development of enterprises for the period 2007 - 2017. Main research tasks are: 1) to study the financial development and strategy of public and private forestry, as well as to compare it with the adopted and applied accounting policies; 2) to examine the audited opinions of the financial statements of the target group enterprises for 2017, as well as to analyze the quality of the audit performed and in this respect the reliability of the financial statements. The applied research methods are based on logical, deductive and comparative methods, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis. Main conclusions of the study are: violations of the control environment, lack of disclosed information in the financial statements of enterprises and the application of accounting policies irrelevant to the financial and economic status of organizations.
    Keywords: forestry, audit, fraud, disclosures, crimes
    JEL: M41 M42 M49
    Date: 2020–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:103246&r=all
  9. By: Olga Khon (Independent Researcher, Saint Petersburg)
    Abstract: We estimate a short-run demand function, using the quarterly data available for modern Russian market - on the one-quarter basis for 1997-2020. Empirical results provide a stable money demand function that explains the short-run money velocity movement. The approach is based on econometric models and dynamic least square methods evaluation within the Akaike criterion applied for the authors? choice of leads and lags. The prior innovation related to model comparison of interest rates in money demand function ? from research-common money market rate to interbank market rate, amplifying proxy better-fitted for the Russian market.
    Keywords: Monetary policy, money demand, money velocity, income elasticity, interest semi-elasticity
    JEL: E41 G28 C50
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:11113164&r=all
  10. By: Thomas Markussen; Smriti Sharma; Saurabh Singhal; Finn Tarp
    Abstract: We examine the effects of randomly introduced economic inequality on voluntary cooperation, and whether this relationship is influenced by the quality of local institutions, as proxied by corruption. We use representative data from a large-scale lab-in-the-field public goods experiment with over 1,300 participants across rural Vietnam. Our results show that inequality adversely affects aggregate contributions, and this is on account of high endowment individuals contributing a significantly smaller share than those with low endowments.
    Keywords: Inequality, Institutions, Corruption, Public goods, lab-in-field experiment
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2020-127&r=all

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