Convergence of public and private enterprise wages in a transition economy: Evidence from a distributional decomposition in Vietnam, 2002–2014

We examine the transition of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Vietnam during the period 2002–2014 from a wage perspective by decomposing the differences in wage distributions between SOE employees and non-SOE employees. Although SOE employees received higher pay in 2002 because of differences in the characteristics and residuals, the differences in coefficients were minimal along the wage distribution during 2002–2014. The differences in characteristics decreased over time in the middle and middle-to-high wage distribution groups. University graduates were the main contributor to the difference in endowments. By 2014, the residuals difference vanished and the pay schemes between SOEs and non-SOEs converged.     

Transition welfare gaps: One closed,another to follow?

Respondents from post‐communist countries have been found to systematically report lower levels of happiness and self‐rated health. While the first welfare gap in happiness has closed recently, the second transition gap in self‐perceived health only started to close. Specifically, this paper shows that treating all transition countries as a homogeneous group may be misleading and therefore divides 28 transition countries into three groups. As a result, in the most recent 2016 round of the ‘Life in Transition’ survey, transition countries in Southern Europe are no longer found to be different from non‐transition nations in terms of their self‐rated health. Although the gap in self‐perceived health for transition nations in Eastern Europe is present in a basic model, it becomes less statistically and economically significant when subjective beliefs and macro‐level variables are added. Countries from the former Soviet Union and Mongolia remain the only group in which respondents report 16.5%–29.1% lower probability of ‘Good’ or ‘Very Good’ health compared to other transition and non‐transition countries. Controlling for communist party membership, ideological beliefs and macro‐level variables somewhat reduces the gap for the former Soviet Union and Mongolia but it remains significant in multiple robustness checks. Although the gap in self‐rated health now applies to only one group of transition countries, it remains an important empirical puzzle with far‐reaching implications for health policy, demand for healthcare and the process of transition.     

我国网络借贷行业深度转型发展的若干思考

当前我国网络借贷服务市场出清速度正不断加快。以“小额”、“分散”和“期限 短”为特征,以服务普惠金融为起点的网络借贷行业,在多因素共振下正面临深度转型。从实 践层面看,我国网络借贷行业面临的“信息中介”定位不清、大数据信用风险管理落地难以及 对投资者不设门槛等三大问题,不仅增加投资者自身面临的信用风险,也对行业稳健发展造成 巨大冲击。建议优化网络借贷平台功能定位、建立和完善网络借贷平台退出机制、设定投资者 准入门槛、推广互联网大数据共享机制建设,同时进一步提升网络借贷行业发展环境。