Bank-led restructuring in Poland: the conciliation process in action1

Poland's 1993 Enterprise and Bank Restructuring Programme (EBRP) tried to force state-owned commercial banks to build institutional capacity and resolve their problem loans. The outcome of its innovative bank-led workout (‘conciliation’) process, documented in this study of 62 firms, is decidedly mixed. The EBRP forced banks to confront their problems, helped them to build instituional capacity in their workout units, and furthered the difficult task of weeding out and closing clearly unviable firms. Yet it had limited power to promote needed restructuring or privatization in firms. The conciliation agreements were relatively unsophisticated and include few tangible requirements for operational or management change. The first two years of implementation saw a slowdown (over earlier years) in the rate of layoffs, a decline in average operating profitablility, and very little real privatization. The main impact of conciliation appears to have been to reduce debt service and thereby give firms ‘breathing room’.     

Complementarities and the managerial challenges of state enterprise restructuring: evidence from two shipyards

The authors examine detailed organizational changes in two similar Polish state enterprises over the past five years. Effective restructuring requires a coherent package of complementary change in at least eight aspects of the business. The requirements on management are formidable and suggest that state enterprise restructuring will be more difficult than is widely believed.     

A political-economic analysis of the failure of neo-liberal restructuring in post-crisis Korea

This paper evaluates IMF-led neo-liberal restructuring in post-crisisKorea. The main conclusions are that: the economic rebound in1999–2000 was both incomplete and unsustainable; restructuringcreated a ongoing credit crunch that continues to constraininvestment spending; Korea may have been pushed onto a long-termlow-investment, low-growth trajectory; insecurity and inequalityhave risen substantially; and the influence of foreign capitalhas dramatically increased. The paper concludes by suggestingthat Koreans should reject radical neo-liberal restructuringand consider instead reforms to democratise and modernise theirtraditional state-guided growth model.     

Enterprise restructuring and adjustment in the transition to market economy: lessons from the experience of Central and Eastern Europe

Some aspects of the process of enterprise restructuring and adjustment in the Central and Eastern European countries are analysed on the basis of evideance from recent empirical research on microeconomic performance in these transition economies. The paper outlines a stylized picture of some types of enterprise behaviour which occur in this period and highlights a number of issues related to the process of enterprise restructuring and adjustment such as the problem of micro budget constraints, the motivation for enterprise restructuring, the issues of corporate governance. Some of the current impediments to enterprise restructuring as well as some of the determinants of enterprise performance in the transition periód are also featured in the paper.     

Restructuring outcomes and the evolution of ownership patterns in Central and Eastern Europe

This paper begins from the proposition that ‘deep restructuring’ requires both finance and managerial expertise. It addresses the question of how this second stage of enterprise restructuring will come about in the majority of state-owned or former state-owned firms that are not owned by foreigners. In particular, it seeks to identify how the initial post-privatization ownership and control structure impinges on the likelihood that deep restructuring takes place. Conclusions for the design of privatization policy are drawn. The initial post-privatization ownership structures in the Visegrad countries and Russia are surveyed along with evidence of the transfer of ownership from insiders to outsiders.     

The role of government aid to firms during the transition to a market economy: Russia 1992-1994

The paper develops two economic grounds for gradualism in the context of the Russian move toward a market economy: one for the support of output through subsidies, another for similar support through credit. The first argument relates to the usual case for softening the blow to a sector hit by an adverse, permanent shock. The other argument depends on the absence of a well-functioning capital market. Having presented the two arguments, we discuss the extent to which they justify the course of Russian policy. Essentially we show that the arguments support much less gradualism than actually took place in Russia in 1992 and 1993.     

Investment and Finance in de novo private firms: Empirical Results from the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland

In this paper we use a survey of 281 Czech, Hungarian and Polish newly-established small private firms in order to shed some light on the constraints these firms face in the credit market. The results of our survey show that imperfections in capital markets in Central European economies do not seem to actually inhibit the growth of new private firms. Credit markets do exist for de novo private firms in the three Central European transition economies studied, and they provide quite a large amount of financing from an early stage of the existence of firms. Financial intermediation works reasonably well as far as de novo private firms are concerned: loss-making de novo firms have a lower probability of getting credit than profitable ones. Banks protect themselves against the risk of a deteriorating pool of borrowers by requiring collateral for their loans. We do not find convincing evidence concerning the existence of adverse selection. Loss-making firms are not ready to pay higher interest rates than profitable firms and are not more likely to ask for credit than profitable firms.     

转型期中国产业中间组织的制度变迁

清末民初和改革开放均属于经济转型期,前者为自然经济向商品经济过渡,后者为计划经济向市场经济转轨,本文比较了这两个转型时期的产业中间组织的制度变迁。在前一时期,传统行会通过变革趋新,逐渐与新型商会和同业公会融为一体;在后一时期,体制内的官办协会与体制外的民间商会也出现了合流的趋势。本文还通过对地区产业中间组织最新截面数据的检验,发现行业组织的发展与工业化水平正相关,与政府对经济生活的干预负相关,这些经验证据加深了我们对中国行业组织制度变迁规律的认识。     

经济转型期的产业断层危机

产业断层危机不同于一般经济周期,它产生于产业结构升级转换中的结构失衡,表现为中长期的结构错落和增长速度迟缓。根据引发的因素可以分为“康氏周期拐点型”、“泡沫经济引致型”、“货币危机引致型”和“产业升级转换型”等类型,中国目前正处于工业化中期阶段,产业结构正面临着向新兴技术和新兴产业转型阶段,到2005年前后,我国将面临产业结构大规模升级,届时由于现阶段的资源瓶颈、产业回补、出口压力、技术瓶颈、产业虚高度化和尤格拉周期因素,可能会发生较大的产业断层危机。     

Inconsistency of estimate of the degree of freedom of multivariate student-t disturbances in linear regression models

A moment estimator for the degree of freedom of the jointly multivariate student-t distribution of the disturbances in a linear regression model has been suggested by Singh [Economic letters (1988) 27, 47–53]. In this paper we will show that the distribution of the moment estimate is independent of the true value of the degree of freedom and the estimate converges to infinite in probability as the sample size goes to infinite. Our results show that the moment estimate does not provide any information on the degree of freedom.     

Analysis and Forecast of the State of Environmental Protection in Russia

The main purpose of the present study is to analyse the emission dynamics of atmospheric and water pollutants in Russia and cost of their removal in the 1980s and early 1990s, and to forecast them by means of a Dynamic Input–Output Model according to different scenarios of future economic development till 1998. Main results of the work are:– methodological principles have been elaborated for singling out the environmental protection sector within the national economy;– a method has been offered for including the ecological block into a Dynamic Input–Output Model of the Russian economy;– a method of data preparation has been elaborated for the ecological block of the above-named model, the data base which characterizes the ecological situation in Russia has been formed and analysed;– calculations for 1994–1998 have been executed for forecasting the economic and ecological development of Russia using the above-mentioned model and the results obtained have been analysed. The results showed that if the existing tendencies towards low environmental protection capital costs remain the same, then the negative environmental impact will increase. In order to implement ecological programs and international agreements, to increase the proportion of removed pollutants, it is necessary to increase substantially expenditures on purifying water and air resources. The proportion of environmental protection investments in the total amount of the national economy capital costs should increase by up to 12–40% according to different scenarios of the economic development and different purposes of the environmental protection policy.     

Regulation—the corridor to liberalization: the experience of the Israeli phone market 1984–2005

The paper follows the regulatory experience of the Israeli communications industry over the last 20 years, and specifically the impact of the regulatory regime introduced in 1990. Since its initiation phone rates declined sharply, placing them among the lowest in Europe, the incumbent’s profits tripled, and the company’s labor force was slashed by 40 percent. What makes the Israeli experience unique is that throughout the period the monopoly was government owned and the regulatory process has been under government control. The Israeli regulator’s experience, though often running counter to conventional wisdom, seems relevant to two central themes in the new economics of regulation: the impact of the institutional environment on regulatory outcomes, and the effect of the asymmetry in information on the regulatory regime. The author was a member of the second phone-rates review committee, and headed the third and fourth committees.     

Arrested development: the experience of European hard disk drive firms in comparison with US and Japanese firms

This paper analyses how US, Japanese, and European HDD firms responded to technological shifts in the hard disk industry from 1973 through 1996. Leading incumbent US HDD firms were frequently forced out of the market. Leading Japanese incumbent firms in the same industry, however, were not displaced by these changes. US startup firms thrived under these technological shifts, displacing US incumbent firms. Japanese startups did poorly. European firms encountered the worst of both worlds: its incumbent firms were frequently displaced by technological changes, as were US firms; while startup firms (with one exception) performed as poorly as those in Japan.     

From Marx to Markets: Reform of the University Economics Curriculum in Russia

This article describes some of the major changes that have occurred in the university economics curriculum in Russia since 1989, with a focus on Moscow State University. The problems and possibilities relating to curriculum reform beyond the introductory course are considered, with the general observation that considerable time will be required for complete reform.     

国有独资转为国有控股的动因及市场反应——基于湖北宜化集团改制的案例研究

文章以“湖北宜化”控股股东宜化集团的改制案例为研究对象,分析了国有企业改制的动机及其由此产生的市场反应。研究表明,政府主导下国有企业改制成功是由于满足了政府的政治动机,即政府推动和企业良好经营绩效的有效契合,且湖北宜化股权收购使全体流通股股东获得了超额收益。进一步研究还发现,由于优质资产的注入,市场对国企改制给予了积极的评价。     

Economic Benefits of Management Reform in the Gulf of Mexico Grouper Fishery: A Semi-parametric Analysis

This paper uses a semi-parametric empirical model to estimate the economic benefits of adopting a property rights-based management program in the Gulf of Mexico grouper fishery. The analysis predicts that a rights-based fleet will be comprised of fewer, more cost efficient boats than under the current controlled access management program. Results indicate that in the year of our data, 1993, the smaller, more productive fleet could harvest the allowable reef fish catch at a cost saving of $2.92–$7.07  million, 12–30% less than under controlled access management. Recent tightening of controlled access regulations suggest that the benefits from management reform could be even larger in the current day fishery.      

Output decline and recovery in the transiton economies: causes and social consequences1

This paper suggests that output in the transition economies of eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union is related to, firstly, macroeconomic stabilization, and secondly, the speed of transition. The statistical analysis suggests that those countries which have been most successful in reducing inflation have experienced a lower level of output decline and have been first to achieve recovery in real output. There is also strong evidence that the economies which have been boldest in adopting reforms have been most successful in limiting the fall in output and promoting growth. No support is found for the assertion that the faster the speed of transition the greater the adverse impact on basic social indicators, such as mortality rates.     

Analysing the breakthrough of rock ‘n’ roll (1930–1970) Multi-regime interaction and reconfiguration in the multi-level perspective

The breakthrough of rock ‘n’ roll was part of broader transformations in the American music industry, involving changes in music instruments, music recording technology, audiences, radio programming and music styles. These transformations will be analysed as sociotechnical transition, using the multi-level perspective. One characteristic of the case is interactions between multiple regimes: radio and recording. Another characteristic is the presence of strong cultural components, with rock ‘n’ roll as proxy. These characteristics lead to theoretical adjustments in the multi-level perspective. Further analysis also suggests a particular transition path of reconfiguration, in which multiple niche-innovations cumulatively transform the regime.     

Trouble in Market Paradise: Development of the Regional Transmission Operator

Regional transmission organizations (RTOs) have evolved from “power pool” arrangements between utilities to complex organizations that operate a region’s transmission system and power markets. These RTOs are administered with only peripheral public input. This paper reflects on how RTOs, as a result, have developed very complex market structures that few can or do understand. An RTO’s capacity construct is used to illustrate the point of this complexity and ad hoc nature. The paper also discusses reforms that are needed to align the RTOs behavior with Harry M. Trebing’s public interest regulatory philosophy.