Determinants of Enterprise Restructuring in Transition: Description of a Survey in Russian Industry

The survey described in this article collects data on enterprise restructuring, ownership, competition, budget constraints and, particularly, institutions in Russian industry, covering the period between the start of 1992 and September 1999. On their own, the survey answers show a devastating restructuring crisis, massive privatisation, rather weak competition, unexpectedly hard budget constraints, an overwhelmingly negative and relatively positive assessment of formal and informal institutions respectively, and largely the same ruling networks as before the start of market reforms. Ironically, tentative results based on this survey indicate that important determinants of enterprise restructuring in Russian industry are exactly those on which least reform has been accomplished: stronger competition and better institutions go with more restructuring, while privatisation and harder budget constraints do not. The substitution, to some extent, of informal for formal institutions may have prevented even worse restructuring figures, but better formal institutions in general would have led to further improvements.     

Multi-market interaction and decentralization of R&D decisions

In this paper, we analyse under what conditions it is profitable for a multi-divisional firm to encourage divisions to perform independent R&D, and when it is better to centralize R&D so that the level be chosen co-operatively. Under Bertrand competition, firms always centralize R&D decisions. Under Cournot competition, however, with divisions of the same firm producing substitute products, the strategic advantage of decentralizing R&D compensates the co-ordination loss when the degree of substitutability among the products is not too high; in all other cases (when products are very good substitutes or when divisions of the same firm produce complement goods) the pay-off to co-ordination is greater than the strategic advantage of decentralization. Social welfare is maximized when firms centralize R&D.     

LOCAL RESPONSES TO GLOBALIZATION IN CHINA: A TERRITORIAL RESTRUCTURING PROCESS PERSPECTIVE

Abstract. This paper argues that the formation and transformation of local entrepreneurial governances can be understood as a process of local responses to challenges presented by global economic restructuring. Two kinds of local responses are theoretically identified. At the structure level, local entrepreneurial governances happen when places are embedded in the situation of competition between cities and regions. At the agent level, the emergence of local entrepreneurial governances requires local actors who pursue their own political and economic interests. The theoretical framework, what I term ‘territorial restructuring process’, is empirically explained by the context of the West and China.     

A cost-benefit assessment of wholesale electricity restructuring and competition in New England

We conduct a social cost-benefit analysis of wholesale electricity market restructuring and competition in New England. A counter-factual investment path is formulated which characterizes how the wholesale power system might have evolved in New England under continued regulation. The investment and operating costs of the counter-factual case are compared with a projected evolution of actual developments under restructuring and wholesale competition. An important contributor to restructuring benefits is improved operation of nuclear plants divested from incumbent owners under restructuring and transferred to more experienced owners. We estimate net benefits over the 18-year analysis period of about 2% of wholesale costs.      

市场开放、地方财税竞争与产业结构调整*——基于我国省级面板数据的实证研究

平衡“稳增长”与“调结构”的关键与核心在于“供给侧结构性改革”的产业结构优化形成方面。本文系统分析了市场开放与地方财税竞争对产业结构调整的影响机制,并采用2003—2014年中国29个省、市、自治区面板数据进行了实证检验。结果显示：市场开放显著推进了产业结构调整,但国际市场开放和国内市场开放作用力的大小存在地区差异,东部地区国内市场开放的作用力更大,中部与西部地区则相反。地方财税竞争一方面有利于产业结构高级化,另一方面抑制了产业结构合理化。本文进一步考察发现,地方财税竞争会削弱市场开放对产业结构合理化促进的效力。产业结构转型过程中存在“拉弗效应”,结构性减税只要与产业结构调整方向保持一致,就能在增加财税收入的同时优化产业结构。地方财政支出在一定程度上推动了产业结构高级化,但是,其中的经济建设性支出会扭曲资源配置,抑制产业结构合理化。地方税收政策对产业结构调整存在显著的结构效应,所得税相比商品税更趋于优化产业结构。这些研究结论对于深化市场开放、矫正地方政府竞争行为、实施财税体制改革等具有重要的政策启示。     

如何完善中国出口退税制度

出口退税作为中国一项基本经济政策,从客观上要求建立一个科学、规范、合理和稳定的退税机制,改革现行出口退税体制,加强出口退税管理成为当务之急。就此,提出了相关的建议：合理改革出口退税中央与地方的分担机制,出口退税改革与增值税转型协调进行,取消所有产品的出口产品的退税,提高出口退税制度的立法层次,稳定出口退税制度。     

The case for international tax co-ordination reconsidered

In a world of high capital mobility, governments may be tempted to undercut each other's capital income taxes to attract capital from abroad. Since such tax competition may have detrimental effects for all countries, European policy makers have debated the introduction of a minimum capital income tax rate within the EU. This paper develops an applied general equilibrium model to estimate the effects of such tax co-ordination on resource allocation, income distribution and social welfare. The model allows for the concern of policy makers that a rise in capital taxes within the EU may cause a capital flight out of Europe. Capital flight will indeed reduce the welfare gain from tax co-ordination within Western Europe, but a positive net gain will remain, although it is likely to be well below 1% of GDP. The gain from co-ordination will be unevenly distributed across European countries, due to differences in economic structures and in the social preference for redistribution. Moreover, even if the median voter's gain from tax co-ordination may be small, the gains for the poorer sections of society may be quite large.     

Enterprise restructuring and bank competition in transition economies

We investigate how bank competition affects the efficiency of credit allocation, using a model of spatial competition. Our analysis shows that bad loans are more likely the larger the number of banks competing for customers. We study further how many banks will be active if market entry is not regulated. Free entry can induce too much entry and thus too many bad loans compared to the social optimum. Finally we analyse how bank competition affects the restructuring efforts of firms. We find that restructuring has positive externalities which give rise to multiple equilibria, with either much or little restructuring activity.
JEL classification: D43, G21, G34, L13, P31, P34.     

Merger remedies involving restructuring costs in a Cournot framework

We analyze the effects of structural merger remedies in a Cournot framework. In particular, we extend a basic model approach by introducing restructuring investments that are necessary to implement divestiture remedies. We assume that such investments increase the merging parties’ marginal cost of production and show that they therefore reinforce the effect of divestitures on post-merger competition. As a consequence, if the competition authority does not take restructuring investments into account while fixing the remedies, the size of the divestiture will be too large and hence over-fix the competition issue. This not only causes an unduly increase of the market power of the competitor but also reduces the synergy gains of the merging parties and therefore hurts consumers in the affected markets.     

A Retrospective Look at Wholesale Gas: Industry Restructuring

The purpose of this paper is to identify lessons learned from the restructuring of the natural gas industry. We draw a number of conclusions including that the billions of dollars of savings typically attributed to gas industry restructuring resulted not from competition but because restructuring stranded billions of dollars in contractual purchase obligations, costs that were absorbed by producers and pipelines. The replacement of regulated wholesale merchants by new entrants did not occur because of competitive efficiencies. Competition in wholesale gas marketing has produced consumer benefits in the form of innovation, new product development, broader choices and possibly reduced costs. Bi-lateral contracting led to the development of gas markets, which in turn, produced market-wide diffusion and integration of pricing information.     

Russian Railways Reform and the Problem of Non‐discriminatory Access to Infrastructure

Abstract Restructuring of the Russian railways system is well under way. Among the policies just now coming into practice are two that are standard in railways restructuring in other countries: the provision of access to the infrastructure by independent train operating companies, and assurances of non‐discriminatory access terms for such companies. However, 'discrimination'– in the traditional economic sense – is a standard and often welfare‐enhancing pricing strategy for the recovery of fixed costs in a sector, like railways, with declining average costs. If competition regulators are unable to distinguish between discrimination that harms competition and discrimination designed only to recover fixed costs, policy makers in Russia and elsewhere will face a choice between large government subsidies and large welfare losses. In these circumstances, other restructuring models should be considered.     

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.     

Transmission Constraints and Imperfect Markets for Power

This article argues that, while most of the economic gains from the restructuring of the power industry will be achieved in electricity generation, trading and retailing, the transmission grid holds the keys to an important share of the economic value created by the process. Using a simple three-node network, this article shows that an increase in transmission capacity has two effects: (1) cheaper power can be used, and (2) competition among generators is increased. This carries three policy implications: first, policy makers can and should use transmission expansion to increase competition in generation. Second, generators will not necessarily finance nor advocate optimal transmission expansion: they may prefer to keep the rents derived from local market power, rather than gain better access to markets, even if they receive transmission payments corresponding to their investment, as suggested in parts of the United States. Finally, this work provides support for the vertical separation between generation and transmission, beyond the traditional foreclosure argument.     

The Problems of Transition, EU Enlargement, and Globalization

This paper examines how far the restructuring process toward a market system has proceeded in Transition Economies since the collapse of Communist regimes more than a decade ago, how ready these economies are for admission into the European Union, and how the globalization of the world economy is affecting them. The paper also presents a model of the restructuring process and of international trade during the restructuring process.     

Merger and optimal number of firms: an integrated simulation approach

In a market where imperfect competition occurs as a result of mergers, this study proposes a framework consisting of both efficiency and risk analyses that allow the simulation of pro forma mergers and hence the determination of the optimal number of firms in the industry. This is valuable policy information for regulators concerned with possible intervention in the case of competition and anti-trust violations, and also for business managers seeking acquisition targets. The framework is applied to the banking industry in Taiwan. Results reveal the potential for industrial restructuring in a sector where the optimal number of Bank Holding Companies (BHCs) is between four and six, subject to whether partial control is assumed.     

中国服装出口动态增长的比较研究——马尔可夫转移矩阵应用

自2001年中国入世,尤其是2005年多纤维协定（MFA）消亡,全球产业网络重构加速,中国服装出口呈现出高速增长的态势,老牌与新兴服装出口国展开新一轮竞争。通过研究2000—2010年的服装出口数据发现,中国、欧盟15国、东盟等经济体的服装出口不断增长,而其市场占有率则相互转移不断变化。马尔可夫转移矩阵是分析这种转移特性和变化过程的有效工具。运用马尔可夫转移矩阵,研究十年来世界服装市场上中国与其竞争对手的动态增长和转移情况,并预测该市场未来五年的变化。     

Competition, entry and the social returns to infrastructure in transition economies

This paper presents a simple model for analysing the contribution of investments in physical and institutional infrastructure to the transition process. In addition to the direct cost savings, infrastructure investment generates important indirect effects, or transition impacts . The model shows that, by reducing transaction costs, infrastructure intensifies product market competition. This leads to more effective weeding out of the existing high-cost firms in the market. In this model, infrastructure also increases the incentives for low-cost firms to restructure which generates additional efficiency gains, but exacerbates the existing cost asymmetry in the economy. Finally, infrastructure investment enhances the incentives for relatively low-cost firms to enter the market, and thus improves the efficiency of the entry process. The importance of these transition impacts of infrastructure is dependent upon features of the economy, such as the degree of cost asymmetry among firms, the proportion of high-cost firms, the cost of restructuring and entry costs for new firms.
JEL classification: L1, O1, P2.     

Optimal privatization of vertical public utilities

Abstract We examine restructuring, divestiture, and deregulation of a vertically integrated public utility, (e.g., electricity), from a public finance perspective. How an optimal restructuring plan for the utility depends on the cost of public funds and on the X‐efficiency gains from privatization, how the optimal degree of competition in the upstream and downstream segments are connected, and implications of privatization for consumer prices are examined. The higher the cost of public funds, the more likely the post‐privatization price will exceed the regulated public utility price. The greater the X‐efficiency gains from privatization, the more likely the post‐privatization price will fall.     

当前做好报刊零售工作的几点思考

伴随着市场经济的发展,报纸之间的竞争已不再局限于报纸内容,而是将竞争上升到营销即报纸发行这样一个实现产品自身价值的层面。报纸作为一种信息传播工具,其传播对象是数以万计的读者,同时还要将广大的读者对其关注所产生的＂注意力经济＂即＂眼球经济＂销售给广告商。而面对科技高速发展的今天,报纸发行业所面临的不仅是来自各种报刊之间的竞争,还有来自于电视媒体、网络媒体等多种形式媒体之间的竞争。在中国报业正在面临深化文化体制改革的大背景下,必须在新的市场竞争中以完善发行管理做好报纸发行工作,从而更好地发挥报纸发行在报业经济中的作用。     

The restructuring of insider-dominated firms: A comparative analysis

We study the effects of different modalities of privatization to insiders on the restructuring process in two former Soviet republics - Georgia and Moldova -using enterprise survey data for 1995-97. Enterprise restructuring was similar in companies where incumbent managers received significant ownership stakes for free and in state-owned companies. In contrast, the restructuring process was faster in companies bought by their managers. We interpret these results to suggest that managers' incentives to restructure decrease when they perceive their newly acquired ownership as a windfall gain.