Firm ownership and internal labour practices in a transition economy

One feature common to many post‐socialist transition economies is a relatively compressed wage structure in the state‐owned sector. We conjecture that this compressed wage structure creates weak incentives for work effort and worker skill acquisition and thus presents adverse consequences for the entire transition economy if a substantial portion of the labour force works in the state sector. We explore firm wage incentives and worker training, as well as other labour practices and outcomes, in a transition setting with matched firm and worker data collected in one of the largest provinces of Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City. The Vietnamese state sector exhibits a compressed wage distribution in relation to privately owned firms with foreign ownership. State wage practices stress tenure over worker productivity and their wage policies result in flatter wage–experience profiles and lower returns to education. The state work force is in greater need of formal training, a need that is in part met through direct government financing. In spite of the opportunities for government financed training and at least partly due to inefficient worker incentives, state firms, by certain measures, exhibit lower levels of labour productivity. The private sector comparison group to state firms for all of these findings is foreign owned firms. The internal labour practices of foreign firms are more consistent with a view of profit‐maximizing firms operating with no political constraints. This is not the case for Vietnamese de novo private firms that exhibit much more idiosyncratic behaviour and whose labour practices are often indistinguishable from state firms. The exact reasons for this remain a topic of on‐going research yet we conjecture that various private sector constraints, including limited access to formal capital, play an important role.     

The curse of natural resources in the transition economies*

The curse of natural resources is a well‐documented phenomenon for developing countries. Economies that are richly endowed with natural resources tend to grow slowly. Among the transition economies of the former ‘Eastern Bloc’, a similar pattern can be observed. This paper shows that a large part of the variation in growth rates among the transition economies can be attributed to the curse of natural resources. After controlling for numerous other factors, there is still a strong negative correlation between natural resource abundance and economic growth. Among the transition economies the prime reasons for the curse of natural resources were corruption and a neglect of basic education. In order to overcome the curse of natural resources and move to a sustainable path of development, the resource abundant transition countries should fight corruption and ensure that their resource revenues are invested in human capital or the preservation of natural capital.     

Leaving state sector employment in Russia

I analyse the reallocation of labour and human capital from the state sector to the non‐state sector and non‐employment in Russia. I use a nationally representative household dataset, the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, to study sectoral mobility in early transition using summary measures of mobility and multivariate discrete choice models. The results show that sectoral mobility varies between different skill groups, and in particular that those with university education, with supervisory responsibility and in white‐collar occupations are less likely to leave state jobs for both non‐state employment and non‐employment. The results suggest that in the early stages of transition in Russia mismatch of skills across state/non‐state employment was significant and that non‐state employment consisted mostly of low skill, ‘bad’ jobs.     

Squatting as a transition problem in South Africa

This paper applies principles of transition to land tenure and squatting in South Africa. Political transition in South Africa reassigned political property rights, which produced contestable, and rent‐seeking incentives for squatting as a means to privatize land and redistribute wealth. Government failure to establish and protect private property rights in a squatter camp resulted in common‐pool problems that resisted private and public resolution with consequent rent dissipation and social loss. In response to this retreat from duty, informal agents emerged to claim their own share of the prize. Without enforceable rules of capture, the growth of squatter camps in South Africa will continue. JEL classification: D7, H8, K1, K4, R1, R4.     

Institutional design and the closure of public facilities in transition economies

As part of the reforms of their systems for financing and delivering health care, many transition economies, particularly in central and eastern Europe, have adopted national insurance funds that are institutionally separate from ministries of health. Most of these countries have also grappled with the problem of restructuring the delivery system, especially the need to reduce hospital capacity. Although improving the performance of medical care providers through a shift from passive budgeting to explicitly incentive mechanisms is important, why this change in financial relations between the government and providers could not be implemented simply by reforming the role of health ministries is not obvious. This paper presents an explicit rationale for the separation of powers between the regulator (the ministry of health) and the financing body (the insurance fund), based on the inability of a single agency to commit to closing hospitals. JEL classification: L51, P20, P35, I18.     

黄河流域和长江经济带制造业绿色转型效率对比

以黄河流域和长江经济带沿线19个省份为样本,建立超效率SBM(slack-based measure)模型测算分析了2013-2022年黄河流域和长江经济带的制造业绿色转型效率,并利用\"泰尔指数\"进行转型效率的差异性分析.研究发现,长江经济带绿色转型效率呈上升趋势,相反黄河流域发展相对缓慢;通过差异性分析发现黄河流域的域制造业绿色转型效率低于长江经济带,并且黄河流域中各省份的差异性相差较大.     

对转型经济研究中激进与渐进二分法的评价

在对转型经济的类型学研究中,激进．渐进二分法曾经是主流的研究方法,它对于理解不同体制转型的特点、内在机理,区分各自理论依据乃至哲学基础都起到了重要的推动作用。但随着世界各国体制转轨的不断推进和人们对转型经济研究的不断深入,这一研究方法开始面临越来越严峻的挑战,日益暴露出其局限性。本文旨在对二分法做出客观的评价,以推进转型经济研究的进一步深入。     

加快民族地区城乡社会保障一体化发展的步伐

目前我国社会保障正处于典型的二元结构时期,民族地区加快社会保障城乡一体化发展非常必要和紧迫。鉴于当今制约民族地区农村社会保障事业发展存在的多方面因素,应积极采取探索与农村低保制度相适应的农村贫困人口扶贫方式、加大政府公共财政支出力度等多种措施,从而在根本上解决民族地区的经济发展,提升民族地区的农村社会保障水平。     

基于SAM的价格敏感性行业甄别及其传递路径分析

本文运用社会核算矩阵价格乘数理论构建价格敏感性指标,将其应用于甄别对价格波动更敏感且价格影响辐射更广的行业或生产要素,并探讨了价格冲击的具体传递路径。根据价格前向与后向联系的相对大小,本文将各行业或要素分为价格敏感型、价格波动诱因型、价格不敏感型和易受价格波动影响型四类。实证表明,不同行业或要素的价格敏感性存在显著差异;非熟练劳动力对行业的价格传递主要是通过直接路径发生作用,而熟练劳动力、资本、土地的价格传递则存在直接或间接路径等多种渠道。本文研究结论可为有针对性地依据价格敏感性与传递路径来制定通胀宏观调控政策提供参考。