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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2004

International and Area Studies

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Does Privatization Raise Productivity? Evidence From Comprehensive Panel Data On Manufacturing Firms In Hungary, Romania, Russia, And Ukraine, J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Álmos Telegdy Nov 2004

Does Privatization Raise Productivity? Evidence From Comprehensive Panel Data On Manufacturing Firms In Hungary, Romania, Russia, And Ukraine, J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Álmos Telegdy

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We analyze the impact of privatization on multifactor productivity (MFP) using long panel data for nearly the universe of initially state-owned manufacturing firms in four economies. Controlling for firm and industry-year fixed effects and employing a wide variety of measurement approaches, we estimate that majority privatization raises MFP about 28 percent in Romania, 22 percent in Hungary, and 3 percent in Ukraine, with some variation across specifications, while in Russia it lowers it about 4 percent. Privatization to foreign rather than domestic investors has a larger impact (about 44 percent) and is much more consistent across countries. The positive effects …

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The Wage Effects Of Schooling Under Socialism And In Transition: Evidence From Romania, 1950-2000, Daniela Andrén, John S. Earle, Dana Sapatoru Nov 2004

The Wage Effects Of Schooling Under Socialism And In Transition: Evidence From Romania, 1950-2000, Daniela Andrén, John S. Earle, Dana Sapatoru

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We estimate the impact of schooling on monthly earnings from 1950 to 2000 in Romania. Nearly constant at about 3-4 percent during the socialist period, the coefficient on schooling in a conventional earnings regression rises steadily during the 1990s, reaching 8.5 percent by 2000. Our analysis finds little evidence for either the standard explanations of such an increase in the West (labor supply movements, product demand shifts, technical change) or the transition-specific accounts sometimes offered (wage liberalization, border opening, increased quality of education). But we find some support for institutional and organizational explanations, particularly the high productivity of education in …

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What Makes Small Firms Grow? Finance, Human Capital, Technical Assistance, And The Business Environment In Romania, J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Dana Lup Jun 2004

What Makes Small Firms Grow? Finance, Human Capital, Technical Assistance, And The Business Environment In Romania, J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Dana Lup

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Although the development of a new private sector is generally considered crucial to economic transition, there has been relatively little empirical research on the determinants of startup firm growth. This paper uses panel data techniques to analyze a survey of 297 new small enterprises in Romania containing detailed information from the startup date through 2001. We find strong evidence that access to external credit increases the growth of both employment and sales. Taxes appear to constrain growth. The data suggest that entrepreneurial skills have little independent effect on growth, once demand conditions are taken into account. The evidence for the …

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Information Technology, Organizational Form, And Transition To The Market, John S. Earle, Ugo Pagano, Maria Lesi Jun 2004

Information Technology, Organizational Form, And Transition To The Market, John S. Earle, Ugo Pagano, Maria Lesi

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The paper reviews theories of information technology adoption and organizational form and applies them to an empirical analysis of firm choices and characteristics in four transition economies: Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. We argue that these economies have gone through two major structural changes – one concerning technology and another concerning ownership and boundaries of firms – and we consider if and how each of the two structural changes has affected the other. We test the impact of firm size, integration, and ownership on the extent of new information technology adoption (measured by growth in the fraction of employees …

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Ownership Concentration And Corporate Performance On The Budapest Stock Exchange: Do Too Many Cooks Spoil The Goulash?, John S. Earle, Csaba Kucsera, Álmos Telegdy Feb 2004

Ownership Concentration And Corporate Performance On The Budapest Stock Exchange: Do Too Many Cooks Spoil The Goulash?, John S. Earle, Csaba Kucsera, Álmos Telegdy

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

We examine the impact of ownership concentration on firm performance using panel data for firms listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange, where ownership tends to be highly concentrated and frequently involves multiple blocks. Fixed-effects estimates imply that the size of the largest block increases profitability and efficiency strongly and monotonically, but the effects of total blockholdings are much smaller and statistically insignificant. Controlling for the size of the largest block, point estimates of the marginal effects of additional blocks are negative. The results suggest that the marginal costs of concentration may outweigh the benefits when the increased concentration involves "too …

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Economic Reforms And Productivity-Enhancing Reallocation In The Post-Soviet Transition, J. David Brown, John S. Earle Jan 2004

Economic Reforms And Productivity-Enhancing Reallocation In The Post-Soviet Transition, J. David Brown, John S. Earle

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

How do economic reforms affect resource reallocation processes and their contributions to productivity growth? This paper studies the consequences of enterprise privatization and liberalization of product markets, labour markets, and imports in the former Soviet Republics of Russia and Ukraine. Analyzing interfirm reallocation of output, labour, capital, and an input index with annual industrial census data from 1985 to 2001, we find that Soviet Russia displayed low reallocation rates that bore little relationship to relative labour and multifactor productivity across firms. Since reforms began, resource flows have increased in both countries, and their contributions to aggregate productivity growth have become …

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