CSR and the legitimacy of business in transition economies: The case of Russia

This study investigates the attitudes of Russian executives towards corporate social responsibility. The empirical study is based on an original survey of executive managers of 129 medium and large industrial enterprises in all regions of Russia. The questionnaire was designed using some important conclusions made by theorists who have analysed the development of CSR in mature capitalist economies. The objective was to probe whether the reaction by Russian managers would be in line with expectations grounded in western theoretical constructs, in particular the concept of business legitimacy. The study provides evidence of a discrepancy between anticipated outcomes based on the studies, reflecting western practice, and actual attitudes shown by Russian managers. A range of economic, social and political factors are considered in the discussion section in the search for an explanation of these results.     

Export differentiation in transition economies

I investigate changes in the structure of trade of seventeen transition economies between 1996 and 2006, focusing on differences across three types of products - homogeneous goods, reference priced goods, and differentiated products. I examine shares of exports of each type of good, intensive and extensive margins, and the hazard of exporting. While there are cross-country differences in the distribution of export shares and in intensive and extensive margins, the largest differences exist in the hazard of exporting. There are significant differences in the hazard both across countries and time.     

Partial privatization in transition economies

Privatization in transition countries has often been partial, with the state retaining a non-controlling ownership share in privatized assets. This paper reviews briefly the empirical evidence and then analyzes the justifications that have been put forward for adopting partial privatization. These are related to the objectives of economic efficiency and the generation of government revenue, as well as to political motivations. The issues covered are the stock-flow problem, risk-sharing and restructuring, informational considerations, the role of market structure, bargaining, foreign investment and the irreversibility of reform. The paper ends with some suggestions for further research.     

Forecasting economies in transition: The case of Romania

Structural change is endemic in the Eastern European economies and the newly emerging Commonwealth of Independent States yet conventional econometric modelling techniques proceed under the assumption that there is a structurally stable true economy to be discovered. This paper extends the analysis of Hall (1993) by exploring the consequences of endemic structural change for forecasting and building structural econometric models. We propose a model formulation which makes the econometric model itself able to adjust its parameters in the light of economic change using the Kalman Filter.The paper then illustrates this approach by building a small model of Romania and investigating its forecasting properties.This work was presented at a meeting of the MEET II network funded by the ACE project, Econometric Inference into the Macroeconomic dynamics of East European Economies.     

Auditor independence,incomplete contracts and the role of legal liability

We develop a model in which there is conflict of interest between the management and the shareholders of an organization. Incompleteness of contracts prevents a simple contracting solution to this problem. We suggest that auditors can play a role in aligning the conflicting interests. However, this result is dependent on auditors maintaining independence from management. Again however, incompletenesses in contracting causes difficulties because it may be hard to ensure that auditors maintain this required independence. In this context, the imposition of potential legal liability (punishment) on the auditor, may be an important commitment mechanism for the auditors, making it credible that they will not collude with the management. In order to give our model institutional structure we study how this collusion may take place through the reappointment concerns of the auditor. In the reappointment game, we consider how legal liability levels could be chosen so that it becomes credible to expect that auditors will not implicitly collude with management and provide a low duty of care.     

Transforming industrial relations in Russia: a case of convergence with industrialised market economies?

Here the authors discuss the ‘old unions’, the ‘new unions’ and the still dominant role of the state. They show how contemporary IR includes changes towards arrangements that are more typical of industrialised market economies (IMEs); nevertheless, there are significant continuities with past patterns, and divergences from IMEs’ arrangements.     

Exchange rate regimes in the transition economies

D. Mario Nuti illustrates the extraordinary progress made by central and eastern European economies in their trade and exchange regimes. Surprisingly, instant convertibility of exchange rates was established. In spite of diverse exchange rate regimes they have all experienced initial severe undervaluation - the cost of speed and of unrestricted trade - followed by rapid real revaluation and incipient protectionism. Since 1994 an embarras de richesse has appeared: high capital inflows which are either inflationary or costly to sterilise. Lower interest rates are recommended.     

Privatization in transition economies: Privatization scale and country size

This paper examines determinants of privatization in transition countries. Empirical studies of privatization are few and even fewer formal empirical analyses of privatization in transition countries exist. Another goal is to examine differences between large-scale and small-scale privatization. We find that scales of privatization respond differently to various determinants. Particularly, privatization scales are sensitive to changes in economic prosperity, unemployment, and inflation. Country size, not government size, seems to be driving privatization in transition countries. Effects of Soviet legacy are non-existent. Some findings are unique to the literature, while others differ from existing studies. Policy implications are discussed.     

Equity block transfers in transition economies: Evidence from Poland

This paper investigates valuation effects of share block transfers and employs agency theory to explain the determinants of equity block premia. A sample of transactions from Poland is used to measure benefits and costs of ownership concentration. Block premia are found to be remarkably low and comparable with those for the most developed economies. Shareholders expect to benefit from intensified monitoring and from corporate restructuring resulting from block acquisitions. Still, shareholders are wary of expropriation stemming from the extraction of private benefits of control by block holders. The opportunities to extract such benefits depend on relative power of investors.     

Foreign presence and efficiency in transition economies

This paper presents empirical evidence on the role of foreign presence in the performance of domestic manufacturing firms in five Central and Eastern European countries. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to estimate a frontier for each sector with similar technology common for five transition countries in the sample − Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Romania. Following Simar and Wilson (J Econom 136(1):31–64, 2007), this study applies a truncated regression and bootstrap technique in a second stage post-DEA analysis. Some evidence is found to support the hypothesis that foreign presence has an overall positive spillover effects on the performance of domestic firms.     

Firm-level determinants of tax evasion in transition economies

Business tax evasion is an important issue for governments. Yet the factors that determine business tax evasion have not been sufficiently examined in the literature in general, and in transition contexts in particular. To address this gap, this study uses the WB/EBRD Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) database with a sample of over 12,692 firms from 26 transition economies. Applying various modelling strategies, we argue that tax evasion is a function of firm-level and institutional-level variables. We contribute to the literature by providing robust evidence showing that the perceived tax burden has a positive impact on tax evasion. We also find that the tax evasive behaviour of firms is positively influenced by low trust in government and in the judicial system as well as by higher perceptions of corruption and higher compliance costs. We find that smaller firms, individual businesses and firms in sectors that are less visible to the tax administration are more likely to get involved in evasive behaviour. Overall, institutional factors play an important role in determining firms’ tax evasion behaviour in transition economies. This finding has important policy implications.     

International trade and hedging in economies in transition

This paper develops a general equilibrium framework to analyze risk management policies in economies in transition. By cross-hedging against real exchange rate risk exposures, these economies can increase their gains from international trade. We suggest that countries with emerging forward markets can gradually introduce the risk sharing markets, as limiting resources may prevent them from introducing complete hedging markets in the first place. Thus the growing demand for risk management instruments can be gradually met and it would be welfare enhancing. Economies in transition benefit when hedging devices are offered by financial markets, irrespective of whether the hedging instruments are de facto perfect or not.     

Child malnutrition in developing economies: a case study of Bangladesh

The study investigate the impact of socioeconomic factors on malnutrition in children (under 5 years) using Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. The urban and rural areas are separately probed for stunting, wasting and under-weight children. The analysis revealed that birth-interval, mother’s education and wealth index reduce the malnutrition in children for urban and rural household, while duration of breastfeeding and lower BMI of the mother increase the malnutrition in both urban and rural areas. Wealth index is more effective in rural areas as compared to urban ones. The male children are more likely to be malnourished in urban areas but female children are more likely to be malnourished in rural areas. The primary level of education of the women has no significant impact on nutritional status of children in urban as well as in rural areas. It has important policy implications that at least secondary level of education should be part of the education policy of Bangladesh. The incidence of diarrhea enhances the probability of stunting and wasting in both urban and rural areas of Bangladesh. From the policy perspective mother’s education and birth-interval are required for achieving the nutrition status of children. For the long-run the socioeconomic status of the household expressed by wealth index is needed. The duration of breastfeeding needs to be reduced by initiation of the supplement food.     

An analysis of repressed inflation in two transition economies

We construct a simple model that tests for repressed inflation by estimating a true rate of inflation that explains behavior of observed money demand. We estimate the model using quarterly data for Czechoslovakia and Poland. Although our results should be viewed as preliminary, given the imperfect nature of our data, we do have strong evidence that, prior to 1991, there was considerable repressed inflation in Poland, while there was essentially no repressed inflation in Czechoslovakia.This paper was funded by a World Bank project on formerly planned economies. We would like to thank Jong-goo Park for suggesting the topic, and Fabrizio Coricelli and Adnan Mazarei for helpful discussions. The views expressed here are our own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the World Bank.     

Motivations for enterprise system adoption in transition economies: insights from Poland

Enterprise system (ES) adoption can bring many benefits, but may also put tremendous strain on an organisation or business, sometimes with disastrous outcomes. The specific motivations and expectations that lead to ES adoption may impact the success or failure of these endeavours, and understanding these motivations may be useful in predicting the success of ES projects. Most of the published research on ES adoption motivation has been in the context of highly developed countries. The social, cultural, economic and political conditions in developing, emerging and transition economies make for a different business environment, and insights obtained from developed countries may not always transfer to these settings. This study seeks to identify and help understand the motivations for ES adoption specifically in transition economies, as these economies play a significant role in the global market, but have not been receiving adequate research attention. Drawing on the experience of 129 ES adopters in Poland, a transition economy, this study categorises motivations into coherent groups of issues and evaluates the influence of discovered motivations on ES adoption success. Further, motivations revealed by this study are compared with motivations reported by prior research conducted in developed countries.     

Liberalization,entry and product quality in transition economies

We model the effect of liberalization on product quality and industrial activity in transition economies. As barriers to entry are reduced, entry costs fall. This leads to an increase in the proportion of low quality producers in the market. The decrease in the expected quality can have adverse effects on consumer demand for the domestic product. The analysis suggests a demand side explanation of the observed restructuring and decline in output in sectors exposed to Western competition during transition.     

Pitfalls in estimating equilibrium exchange rates for transition economies

The literature on equilibrium exchange rates for the central and eastern European countries has mushroomed in recent years. In this paper, we discuss the econometric pitfalls involved in such estimations and endow the reader with the methodological ingredients to avoid such biases. We review the commonly used approaches and identify problems related to the most straightforward econometric procedures as they often do not take the transition process properly into account. As an alternative, we propose a two-stage “out-of-sample” strategy that consists of estimating the relationship between the exchange rates and fundamentals and the extrapolation of these relationships to transition economies.     

State history and the finance-growth nexus: Evidence from transition economies

In this paper, we analyze the growth effects of state history and financial development in transition economies. We show that accumulated experience with established statehood yields significant results and transforms the impact of finance on growth in East-Central Europe, Southeastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. State history as a proxy for long-run ancestral exposure to institutions, political organization and centralization negatively affects the finance-growth nexus. We argue that a long state history is likely to generate extractive institutions that facilitate the provision of soft budget constraints and thereby impair the finance-growth nexus.     

Multi-criteria analysis of economic complexity transition in emerging economies: The case of Paraguay

Like many emerging economies, the productive structure of the Paraguayan economy is not complex. It relies extensively on low value-added activities in the primary sector such as agriculture and cattle ranching. These activities have a lower return in terms of economic and social benefits than other potential productive activities and do not contribute to increasing capability accumulation. In this paper we present a tool to support the identification of strategic sectors and products which if taken advantage of, could leverage development through the accumulation of productive capabilities. Our guiding question is: Which productive sectors should be promoted to foster economic development in Paraguay through a transition towards a more complex economy? To answer this question, we use concepts from the Economic Complexity theory to identify new products and cluster them based on the Product Space methodology for the determination of potential products and combine it with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for multicriteria analysis considering multiple criteria. In doing so, our proposed methodology contributes to both the Economic Complexity and the AHP literature. Through this combination, we tackle the multiplicity of juxtaposed criteria, which should be considered at the prioritization stage in the crafting of economic restructuring measures according to the country's capabilities. Our evaluation showed that the combination of the approaches is useful, and for Paraguay's case, it helped identify sectors, which, if promoted by policymakers, could help boost economic development through complexity and capability accumulation.     

Fiscal impact of privatization revisited: The role of tax revenues in transition economies

In contrast to earlier literature, this paper finds empirical evidence that privatization has deteriorated fiscal balances in transition economies. The investigation focuses on the role of tax revenues in explaining the fiscal impact of privatization, as it appears that tax revenue in many transition countries remained lackluster even after the adoption of several tax reforms in the last two decades, and no formal econometric assessment has been conducted of the extent to which privatization has affected tax revenues. Using panel data for 29 Eastern European and former Soviet Union countries, the analysis finds robust signs of a strong negative impact of privatization on different tax revenue sources. The paper also provides some empirical evidence favoring the early adoption of value-added taxes that appear to have contributed to government revenue recovery.