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on Transition Economics |
| By: | Marko Družić (Ekonomski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the activity efficiency of competition authorities in Central and Eastern European countries by developing a simple, externally verifiable fine-to-budget indicator. The study focuses on the directly measurable segment of competition authority activity: competition-related fines imposed in the areas of abuse of dominance, cartels, and merger violations, relative to the budget allocated to competition-related activities. Using a novel dataset constructed from national competition authority reports and OECD submissions, the paper compares seven CEE countries - Croatia, Czechia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia - over the period 2014–2023. The results reveal substantial heterogeneity across the region. Croatia and Slovenia display low fine-based activity-efficiency levels, while Czechia, Poland, and Slovakia exhibit relatively high and stable performance. Latvia and Lithuania also show high average ratios, but with greater variability, indicating more episodic enforcement patterns. |
| Keywords: | competition authority, enforcement activity, fine-to-budget ratio, competition policy, CEE countries, institutional efficiency |
| JEL: | L4 K21 |
| Date: | 2026–07–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zag:wpaper:2604 |
| By: | Wilp, Susanne Bleier |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a theoretical synthesis of sex work, drug policy and HIV in Eastern and Southeastern Europe - a region that fits neither the governance typology of the Global North nor the self-organisation typology of the Global South developed in two companion papers. The region's defining feature is the intersection of sex work with injecting drug use under double criminalisation, governed in much of the post-Soviet space not by criminal law in the strict sense but by a distinct administrative-offence regime inherited from the late Soviet period. Eastern Europe and Central Asia is, alongside the Middle East/North Africa and Latin America, one of three world regions where new HIV infections have risen rather than fallen since 2010. Two axes structure the analysis. The first traces the postsocialist legal-epidemiological complex from its administrative-law foundations through Tim Rhodes' risk environment framework - developed in this region - to the catastrophic 2014 Crimean methadone ban and the contrasting resilience of Ukraine's wartime opioid agonist treatment system. The second traces an inverted extraterritorial axis: where the Northern paper found US power exercised through platform law and the Southern paper through the PEPFAR pledge, this region experiences the abrupt 2025 withdrawal of PEPFAR/USAID funding colliding with an indigenous Russian counter-power - 'traditional values' politics and foreign-agent legislation that actively suppresses sex worker self-organisation (SWAN, Silver Rose, Legalife-Ukraine) rather than merely leaving it unfunded. A cross-cutting axis examines Southeastern Europe and intra-EU mobility, where Romania's collapse from Global Fund eligibility to antiretroviral supply crises shows treatment access becoming a function of residency and funding status rather than medical need - a pattern this paper extends to the underexamined situation of HIV-positive sex workers who return from Western Europe to Romania or Bulgaria. The paper argues that the postsocialist risk environment constitutes a fourth, structurally distinct case: neither self-built protective infrastructure as in the South nor institutionalised labour-law normalisation as in the North, but a terrain where both state and self-organised protection remain precarious against external shocks - war, funding withdrawal, and authoritarian repression alike. Companion Papers: DE https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/df43j_v1 https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/ckru6_v1 EN https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/uc57b_v1 https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/tysjx_v1 |
| Date: | 2026–06–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:3ykg8_v1 |
| By: | Rosciszewski-Dodgson, Michael J.; Cirella, Giuseppe T. |
| Abstract: | As ecological and economic pressures mount in the Baltic Sea, commercial fisheries face increasing challenges. This study investigates fishermen’s perceptions of four major threats—climate change, pollution, overfishing, and marine predators—with attention to vessel size (fishing boat, cutter, supercutter) and target species (demersal, mixed, small pelagic). Based on 129 surveys and 28 interviews across Poland, the analysis shows that while all threats are acknowledged, perceptions vary significantly by operational context. Seventy-eight coded interview quotations illustrate how sector-specific experiences shape these views, underscoring the need to integrate them into fisheries governance. Friedman test results (p < 0.001) confirm significant variation across threat categories, with the strongest contrasts for overfishing and predator concerns. Smaller vessels targeting demersal and mixed stocks identified predators as the primary threat, while supercutters and pelagic operators emphasized quota restrictions and international competition. Climate change and pollution were viewed as less immediate, though some reported localized impacts. Incorporating sector perspectives is essential for adaptive, sustainable fisheries management. |
| Date: | 2026–06–22 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:ysjwa_v1 |
| By: | Salayeva, Guli; Reyimberganov, Baxrom |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates barriers preventing small and medium enterprises from adopting digital technologies for green business models in transition economies. A survey of 385 SME owners across Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan was conducted. Factor analysis identifies five barrier dimensions, and logistic regression reveals that financial constraints and human capital deficits are the strongest predictors of non-adoption. Recommendations for targeted policy interventions are provided |
| Date: | 2026–06–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:sfrkp_v1 |
| By: | Gilles Paché (CERGAM - Centre d'Études et de Recherche en Gestion d'Aix-Marseille - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - UTLN - Université de Toulon) |
| Abstract: | Modern conflicts reveal that material superiority alone rarely ensures battlefield success. The war in Ukraine since 2022 underscores how the organization, sustainment, and adaptation of logistical networks can decisively shape outcomes, often surpassing the impact of troop numbers or armament volumes. Ukrainian forces demonstrate that endurance, operational flexibility, and effective use of terrain can secure a lasting advantage against a more heavily equipped adversary. Historical precedent reinforces this observation: Finland's resistance against the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1944 shows that an apparently weaker State can achieve strategic leverage through careful preparation and resource management. By structuring defences around mobility, dispersing critical assets, and executing targeted operations, Finland sustained long-term. |
| Keywords: | Force multiplier, Logistics, Operational resilience, Strategic endurance, Ukraine War, Winter War, Adaptability |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05670392 |
| By: | Tinnefeld, Franziska; Wagener, Florian |
| Abstract: | We develop a multi-region, multi-sector Romer-type dynamic partial equilibrium model of endogenous growth. We calibrate on equally sized regions North, East, and South, based on data from Germany, Poland, and China. We compare the effect of trade block formation on innovation outcomes. Integration leads to aggregate increase in both product and process innovation, resulting in aggregate welfare gains. These are concentrated in North: the research sectors of East and South collapse. Our findings explain data from eastern European countries, as well as current R&D policies in China that are designed to avoid downstream lock-in. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Organization, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies |
| Date: | 2026–07–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:feemwp:404836 |
| By: | Vladimir Stantchev (SRH University - Heidelberg, Germany); Teodor Sedlarski (Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Peripheral technology ecosystems in Eastern Europe are institutionally thin: lacking the social embeddedness that makes metropolitan firms contractible at a distance, they remain locked out of high-value markets even where cost and skill fundamentals are favorable. Combining an exploratory institutional case study of Burgas, Bulgaria, with a design-science specification of computable compliance — machine-verifiable, cryptographically signed conformity evidence — we ask whether formal institutions can substitute for missing embeddedness in assurance heavy transactions. The EU regulatory stack (DORA, NIS2, the AI Act, the CRA) and Bulgaria's euro adoption convert compliance capability into a tradable product: a demand-side entry point for peripheral ecosystems. |
| Keywords: | institutional economics; regional innovation ecosystems; computational jurisprudence; transaction costs; Bulgaria |
| JEL: | D02 D23 D82 L51 P25 R58 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sko:wpaper:bep-2026-03 |
| By: | Anna Naszodi |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we study the patterns of ethnic endogamy in Croatia in relation to six ethnic groups between 1970 and 2015. We find that, over the 45-year period analyzed, the segmentation of the Croatian marriage market was weaker between Czechs and non-Czechs, Hungarians and non-Hungarians, Italians and non-Italians, and Slovaks and non-Slovaks than between Serbs and non-Serbs or Croats and non-Croats. This finding is substantiated by survey evidence revealing similar patterns on relative social distances between different ethnic groups in Croatia and Serbia. From a methodological perspective, we show that a plausible ranking of the degree of segmentation of the Croatian marriage market along ethnic lines can be obtained only when marital sorting is characterized by a carefully selected indicator. While a recently reinvented indicator captures sensible patterns of ethnic endogamy, the commonly applied odds-ratio fails to produce results consistent with survey evidence. AI generated video summary of the paper: https://idil.li/wp-content/uploads/2026/ 04/A_Tale_of_Two_Numbers2.mp4 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2606.22163 |
| By: | Kadyrsizova, Snezhana; Myrzakul, Maria |
| Abstract: | While the static inefficiencies of price controls are well-documented, their dynamic consequences on endogenous technological growth remain theoretically ambiguous. Standard frameworks often treat innovation as a monolithic aggregate, masking how regulatory perimeters distort the specific trajectory of technical change. Utilizing a cross-sectional dataset of 953 formal firms from Kazakhstan, we isolate the causal impact of price regulation on firm-level innovation. To eliminate the severe selection bias inherent in regulatory assignment, we employ multivariate entropy balancing to construct an exact counterfactual based on observable moments. The balanced estimates reveal a striking asymmetry: price regulation induces a robust 8.7 percentage point increase in the probability of product innovation, alongside a statistically insignificant effect on cost-reducing process innovation and aggregate R&D activity. This finding suggests that rather than uniformly reducing innovative effort, firms strategically reallocate resources toward new, unregulated product varieties to circumvent price caps and restore Schumpeterian rents. However, this circumventive innovation is highly conditional on structural and financial frictions. The capacity to escape the regulatory perimeter vanishes entirely for firms burdened by credit constraints or forced to compete against heavily subsidized State-Owned Enterprises, resulting in total Schumpeterian deterrence. |
| Keywords: | Kazakhstan; Price regulation; Innovation; Product innovation; Process innovation; R&D |
| JEL: | L1 L51 O3 |
| Date: | 2026–03 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:128474 |
| By: | Minh Ha-Duong (CIRED - Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AgroParisTech - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris) |
| Abstract: | Energy policy models need asset-level data that are complete, current, historical and prospective, and traceable to authoritative primary sources. Yet across much of the world these data arrive late or incomplete. We introduce a computable benchmark for this task: reconstruct the register of Vietnam's 177 thermal power plants and score the result against a hand-compiled, per-cell-sourced reference. We find that the task is hard for today's AI systems. Fourteen language models answering from memory recovered much less than the Wikipedia lists contain, even though these lists had presumably been in their training corpora for years. We observed that a reference-free signal, the within-run variability of the reported capacities, correlates with accuracy, letting us screen out weak runs without the reference. We then tested the commercial frontier of mid-2026: four agentic systems with web access and extended reasoning. Only one improved coverage over the memory-only query, and a multi-step harness degraded three of the four. A curated document set improved coverage, most for the weaker agents. Fusing the lists from multiple runs more than doubles recall. We conclude that an evergreen statistical-quality register requires deliberate knowledge engineering. We propose deriving datasets as dated snapshots from a sourced, auditable knowledge base, mechanically updated from a periodically harvested corpus, with humans in the loop to vet sources and resolve the hard tail. |
| Keywords: | AI benchmark, Large language models, Agentic systems, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, Energy statistics, Knowledge engineering, Vietnam, Thermal power |
| Date: | 2026–06–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:ciredw:hal-05658462 |