Analysis of the labour force composition on cruisers: The Danube through Central and Southeast Europe

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge of the river cruise labour structure. It presents the crew demographics and structure on-board the cruisers along Danube throughout Central and South Eastern Europe. Its goal is to answer the following questions: What are the gender and ages of the ships’ crews? Are they structured according to the country of origin? Is there interdependence between the employment rank of the crew members and the degree of the economic development of the country they come from?The data has been collected from the manifests of the cruise vessels which docked in Serbia over the 9 month research period during the 2007 cruise season. Firstly, data from the 2218 employees on-board the 54 cruisers was collected. Secondly, in-depth interviews with a small sample of cruisers officers, staff and crews (2007–2010) were conducted. The findings of the study have several theoretical and practical implications. Namely, previous related studies have been mainly focused on the ocean cruisers and neglect the rising importance of the river cruisers, especially for the European region. The study also discusses the possibilities for improvement of the human resources management and strategic development management of the European countries, which already have and those which have not yet positioned themselves on the river cruising market.Finally, key demographic employment data and characteristics (e.g. gender, average age, occupational groups, etc.) are important factors to consider when conducting a comprehensive labour force analysis, for they provide the organization a chance to build on its strengths and to minimize challenges and risks.     

住房保障与财富效应逆转——基于平滑转换回归方法的实证分析

本文采取非线性的平滑转换回归方法,对我国保障房供给影响财富效应的程度进行了研究,结果表明:保障房的供给会使得房地产价格的财富效应发生V型逆转,即当保障房供给处于低水平阶段时,房地产价格的财富效应为负向,房价上涨会抑制消费增加;当保障房供给处于高水平阶段时,房地产价格具有正向的财富效应,房价上涨促进消费增加。这说明存在一个保障房供给的最低门槛,只有跨越这个门槛,才能有利于发挥房地产价格的财富效应,进而促进消费。从对全国各省份的数据分析发现,西部地区的大部分省份已经跨越了保障房供给的最低门槛,而东部地区较多的省份,连续几年都低于这个门槛值。因此,应积极建立健全保障性安居工程的融资机制,合理协调好保障房与商品房用地之间的关系,进而促进消费。     

“Money can’t buy me land”: Foreign land ownership regime and public opinion in a transition society

In recent years, as part of the broader policies of economic liberalization, the sale of agricultural land to foreign citizens has attracted considerable political, social and media attention in transition societies. The regime of land ownership in Georgia has evolved from the complete restriction of foreign acquisition in the beginning of the 1990s, to the unrestricted sale of land to foreign citizens from 2010 onwards. An analysis of newly-available data from International Social Survey Programme’s (ISSP) National Identity module suggests that respondents in Georgia, along with Russia, hold the most negative attitudes toward selling land to foreigners compared to other countries. I hypothesize that this is the result of a confluence of factors such as the communist legacy, historical memory, rural nationalism, agricultural underdevelopment and inequality. The quantitative part of this article tests socio-demographic, geographic, ideological, and identity-based explanations of within-country variation in attitudes toward the purchase of land by foreigners. The results suggest that socio-demographic and geographic variables such as respondents’ age and regional belonging explain some variance in the dependent variable, but that the major effects stem from individuals’ perceptions of economic protectionism, xenophobia, and ethnic national identity.     

House price determinants in Athens: a spatial econometric approach

In this paper, we try to identify the price determinants in the biggest real estate market of Greece, the metropolitan area of Athens. For that purpose, various spatial econometric models are used to explore their prediction ability and we are displaying the variations in property prices for the wider area of Athens. These models have been compared based on different criteria such as model fit, the Akaike information criterion and variance of the residuals. Our results indicate that, in our case, the spatial general model is the most appropriate simultaneous autoregressive model when dealing with spatially autocorrelated prices of housing properties data, in terms of our selection criteria.     

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.     

Income inequality and economic growth

Despite the extensive existing literature on income inequality and economic growth, there remains considerable disagreement on the effect of inequality on economic growth. Existing literatures find either a positive or a negative relationship. In this paper, we attempt to theoretically examine that relationship with a stochastic optimal growth model. We make the disagreement clear within a single model. We conclude (i) that both are possible – that is, higher inequality can retard growth in the early stage of economic development, and can encourage growth in a near steady state, (ii) that income redistribution by high income tax does not always reduce income inequality. Income inequality can be reduced by higher income tax in a near steady state, but it cannot be reduced in the early stage of economic development, and (iii) that two government polices – rapid economic growth and low income inequality – can be achieved by low income tax in the early stage of economic development, but both cannot be achieved simultaneously in a near steady state.     

Reforming Social Security in a Transition Economy: The Case of Lithuania

This paper points out a number of problems associated with the existing pension system in Lithuania. Reforms are proposed, including (i) a substantial increase in the basic pension benefit rate, financed on a pay-as-you-go basis, provided universally, and regulated according to wage/price indexation; (ii) a significant cut in the tax contribution rate to the public pension system matched by a rise in the VAT; (iii) a rise in the retirement age to 65 for both men and women; and (iv) a gradual conversion to a private, funded, mandatory pension system to replace the earnings-related part of the current pension system.     

How reliable and consistent are subjective measures of welfare in Europe and Central Asia?

This paper analyses the reliability and consistency of subjective well‐being measures, using the Life in Transition Survey. Drawing on two life satisfaction questions with alternative scales, our results do not reveal substantial biases in accounts of life satisfaction due to framing. Subjective individual assessments of household relative income position, on the other hand, do not appear to be reliable predictors of objective poverty or wealth. We find that subjective relative income position is only weakly correlated with objective welfare measures. There are differences in evaluations of the household's relative standing across different household members, and these differences are correlated with respondent characteristics.     

From central planning towards a market economy: The role of ownership and competition in Vietnamese firms’ productivity

This paper examines the role of ownership and market competition in Vietnamese firms’ total factor productivity (TFP) from 2001 to 2011. Making use of a large panel dataset of manufacturing firms, we find that, on average, both foreign-owned enterprises (FOEs) and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have performed better than privately owned enterprises (POEs) in terms of their TFP levels. However, while FOEs’ TFP ranked the highest in the period 2001–2006, SOEs “closed the gap” in the period 2007–2011. Moreover, we find that market competition has been effective in enhancing average firm productivity and in reducing the gaps in efficiency across ownership types. SOEs’ remarkable performance may be linked to several concurrent factors experienced during the period 2001–2011, namely, the process of restructuring the state sector during the 2000s, the increased economic integration due to the country's accession to the World Trade Organization (2007) and, finally, the preferential access to financial capital and land granted to SOEs. While some evidence supports SOEs’ equitization as an explanation for their remarkable productivity performance, WTO accession and cheaper access to inputs do not fully explain it.     

社会—技术系统可持续转型阻力及治理研究——基于利基保护空间思路

可持续转型研究是一个发展迅速的新领域,旨在解释社会-技术系统转型如何发生以及如何治理，其理论影响日益显著。然而，当前实践表明，以能源、交通为代表的系统转型进程依然相当缓慢，因此厘清转型进程中的阻力具有重要意义。归纳分析系统转型的基本要求以及转型动态过程和机制，从产业结构、基础设施、知识基础、市场和消费需求结构、公共政策与政治力量及社会认知6个方面分析社会-技术系统中现行非持续体制，对新的可持续技术利基发展和转型进程构成阻力。在现行技术体制稳定情况下，加速转型进程必须扶持技术利基成长，从防护、培育、赋能3个方面建立和强化利基保护空间功能,突破体制路径依赖。最后，从“谁治理、治理什么、如何治理”3个问题切入，提出在利基保护空间动态发展过程中，政策制定者需要以治理思维推进其战略管理。