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on Transition Economics |
| By: | Jing Li, Victor (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the housing markets and housing policies in Hong Kong, China and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Both markets face housing affordability problems due to limited land supply, for which the solutions vary considerably. Hong Kong, China has adopted a railway and property development model, which involves close collaboration between the government and property developers in compact urban areas, while leaving most greenbelts and surrounding islands underdeveloped. Although the PRC has pledged to maintain a minimum level of basic farmland to feed its large population, this target has often been compromised due to local governments’ fiscal constraints and growth concerns. |
| Keywords: | PRC housing market; Hong Kong; China; housing affordability; housing subsidies |
| JEL: | H11 H72 P25 P26 R21 R28 R31 R38 R52 |
| Date: | 2016–04–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0566&r=tra |
| By: | Xu, Kun; Guan, Zhihua; Xu, Wenli |
| Abstract: | Knowledge, equipped by labors and technologies, has significant spatial spillover effects on spurring economic growth. This paper by utilizing super-efficiency DEA model evaluates relative efficiency of fiscal expenditure of 31 local governments from 2007 to 2013, and, by employing GSM model, testifies if there is any kind of spatial effect as well as their type. Super-efficiency DEA results show that: fiscal spending of local governments are generally efficient; fiscal efficiency in western China and boundary provinces are higher, that in eastern China and coast provinces are relatively ineffective yet; there exists distinct effect of regional agglomeration. And GSM model manifests that: fiscal efficiency of local governments is without spatial spillover effect; its velocity in 2007 and 2008 is with the positive effect, while it disappears from 2009 to 2013. |
| Keywords: | Fiscal Efficiency; Economic Growth; Spatial Spillover Effect; General Spatial Model |
| JEL: | C1 E0 H0 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:71132&r=tra |
| By: | Iga Magda; Micha³ Brzeziñski |
| Abstract: | We study changes in income inequality and inequality of opportunity (IO) in seven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Using EU SILC 2005 and 2011 data, we make a first attempt to apply inequality decompositions based on RIF regression to the problem of changes in IO over time. Our results indicate that there is considerable heterogeneity in levels of inequality and in the evolution of inequality over time in CEE countries, linked to both changes in the parental backgrounds of individuals and the effects of these changes on current incomes, and to micro-economic factors that correspond to the labour market status and educational attainment levels of households. Differentiating between the CEE countries, we provide evidence of a strong decrease in both overall income inequality and absolute IO in Poland; a decrease in absolute IO accompanied by modest changes in income distribution in Lithuania; and a relatively high and growing share of “unfair” inequality accompanied by a low levels of overall income dispersion in Hungary. |
| Keywords: | inequality of opportunity, income inequality, RIF decomposition, Central and Eastern Europe |
| JEL: | D31 D63 E24 O15 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ibt:wpaper:wp052016&r=tra |
| By: | Olga Gorelova (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Andrey Lovakov (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The literature on the consequences of academic inbreeding shows ambiguous results: some papers show that inbreeding positively influences research productivity, measured in the quantity and quality of publications, while others show the opposite effect. There are contradictory results both in studies of different countries and within countries. Such a variety of results makes it impossible to transfer the findings from one academic system to another, and in Russia this problem has been under explored. This paper focuses on the relationship between inbreeding and publication activity among Russian faculty members. The results, using Russian data from the Changing Academic Profession survey, showed no substantial effect of academic inbreeding on research productivity. Inbred and non-inbred faculty members do not differ substantially in terms of the probability of having publications, or how many, although for inbreds such probability is slightly higher. These results are robust for different operationalizations of inbreeding and measures of publication activity. However the absence of significant differences in the number of publications may not mean the absence of a difference in their quality. The possible explanations and limitations of the standard measures of research productivity are discussed. |
| Keywords: | Academic profession, Academic inbreeding, Research productivity, Faculty members, Russian higher education, Changing Academic Profession |
| JEL: | I23 I28 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:32edu2015&r=tra |
| By: | Alberto, Gabriele |
| Abstract: | This paper surveys a few key features of SOE reforms in China and Vietnam, focusing particularly on the evolution of ownership structures and on the relative weight of market regulatory mechanisms, and discusses their general implications for socialist development. It tentatively concludes that some broad principles informing and constraining any feasible socialist-oriented economic strategy can indeed be identified. |
| Keywords: | China Vietnam Socialism SOE Development |
| JEL: | P2 P23 P26 P31 |
| Date: | 2016–04–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:71026&r=tra |
| By: | Götz, Linde; Djuric, Ivan; Nivievskyi, Oleg |
| Abstract: | This paper further builds on the price transmission model framework of existing studies to identify domestic wheat price effects of wheat export controls. We explicitly take the fact into account that a harvest failure causes domestic price effects as well. Moreover, the analysis at the regional level provides further evidence of the functioning of export controls in a large country. Results suggest a pronounced regional heterogeneity in the strength of domestic price effects of the 2010/11 export ban in Russia. The wheat price dampening effects amount to up to 67 % and are strongest in the major wheat exporting region with direct access to the world market. This effect is transmitted to other regions by increased and reversed interregional trade flows. Contrasting, regional variation of export controls´ domestic price effects in Ukraine is rather small. |
| Abstract: | Dieser Artikel entwickelt den Preistransmissionsansatz aus der Literatur weiter, um inländische Weizenpreiseffekte von Weizenexportkontrollen zu identifizieren. In unserem Ansatz findet speziell Berücksichtigung, dass auch Mißernten selbst Preiseffekte auslösen. Die Ergebnisse der Analyse auf regionaler Ebene weisen auf eine starke regionale Heterogenität bezüglich der Stärke der Preiseffekte während des Exportverbots 2010/11 in Russland hin. Der den Weizenpreis dämpfende Effekt ist in der Region mit direktem Zugang zum Weltmarkt am Stärksten und beläuft sich auf 67 %. Dieser Effekt wurde durch stark ansteigenden interregionalen Weizenhandel, zum Teil auch im Rahmen von Handelsumkehrung, in die übrigen Regionen übertragen. Im Unterschied zu Russland ist die Variation des inländischen Preiseffekts von Exportkontrollen in der Ukraine deutlich schwächer. |
| Keywords: | export controls,international trade,agricultural trade policy,Russia,Ukraine,grain markets,food security,extreme weather events,climate change,Exportkontrollen,internationaler Handel,Agrarhandel,Agrarhandelspolitik,Russland,Ukraine,Getreidemärkte,Ernährungssicherung,extreme Wetterereignisse,Klimawandel |
| JEL: | C22 E30 Q11 Q17 Q18 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:iamodp:154&r=tra |
| By: | LEILA KADAGISHVILI (Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University) |
| Abstract: | The present paper studies the transit potential of Georgia and developing perspectives. It’s noted, that strengthening of transit energy corridor is of great importance for Georgia due to its strategically important geographical location. Thanks to its transit and energy corridors, Georgia gained the status of the country that supports balancing of economic interests between European and Asian countries. Favorability of the country’s geographical location has been proved and increased since the establishment of Baku-Supsa and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipelines. Besides these two geo-economically strategic pipelines of international importance, there are two exceptionally important gas pipelines running through the territory of Georgia: the North-South or Shah Deniz and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipelines. Strategically important Georgian ports and terminals such as Batumi, Poti and Kulevi have direct connections with railway lines of Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Russia and Bulgaria. Development of port infrastructure is one of the priorities for Georgia. For this purpose, construction of deep-water port in Anaklia is of special importance. The government of Georgia has already called for investors to express interest in this project. Full utilization of its transit capacity will be beneficial for Georgia both from political and economic point of view. Due to its geopolitical location, Georgia turned out to be in the area of strategic interests of the US, EU, Russia, Turkey, Iran and China. As a result, developed countries have begun to actively cooperate with Georgia with the purpose of utilization of their predominant geopolitical and economic importance. Georgia is developing multilateral relations directed to global integration and the transit potential is one of the main preconditions of achieving competitiveness in these processes. The country has good opportunities for economic prosperity and rapid growth. The main task in this regard is to avoid threats by careful maneuvering and suggest mutually beneficial economic projects based on equal partnership to the international community. All this makes it possible to introduce economic, social, political, legal and other kinds of achievements of the West adapted with national values in Georgia. The paper concludes that due to its strategically important location Georgia is given an opportunity to become actively involved in global integration processes and use the benefit gained from these processes to ensure high rates of economic growth and increase in the competitiveness of the country. |
| Keywords: | geoeconomics, geopolitics, transit potential, integration, competitiveness. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3606253&r=tra |
| By: | Samuel Cudre; Mathias Hoffmann |
| Abstract: | We model capital flows among Chinese provinces using a theory-based variance decomposition that allows us to gauge the importance of various channels of external adjustments at the regional level: variation in intertemporal prices - domestic and international interest rates and the real exchange rate - and intertemporal variation in quantities (cash flows of output, investment and government spending). We find that our simple framework can account for around 85 percent of the variation in regional capital flows over the 1985-2010 period. Our results suggest that the relative importance of private and state-owned enterprises, a province's level of integration into the world economy and its sectoral composition play an important role for external adjustment vis-`a-vis the rest of China and the world. Specifically, we find strong empirical support for the view that differential access of private and state-owned enterprises to finance is a key driver of China's surpluses. We discuss implications of our results for global imbalances in capital flows. |
| Keywords: | China, Chinese Provinces, Capital Flows, Current Account, Global Imbalances, External Adjustment, Present-Value Models, Regional Business Cycles. |
| JEL: | F30 F32 F40 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:camaaa:2016-18&r=tra |
| By: | Hoken, Hisatoshi |
| Abstract: | Chinese agricultural cooperatives, called Farmer's Professional Cooperatives (FPCs), are expected to become a major tool to facilitate agro-industrialization for small farmers through the diffusion of new technologies, the supply of high-quality agricultural inputs and the marketing of their products. This study compares FPC participants with vegetable-producing non-participants and grain farmers in vegetable-producing areas in rural China to investigate the treatment effect of participation in FPCs as well as implementation of vegetable cultivation. I adopt parametric and nonparametric approaches to precisely estimate the treatment effects. Estimated results indicate no significant difference between participants and non-participants of FPCs on agricultural net income in both parametric and non-parametric estimations. In contrast, the comparison between vegetable and grain farmers using propensity score matching (PSM) reveals that the treatment effect of vegetable cultivation is significantly positive for total and agricultural incomes, although vegetable cultivation involves more labor-intensive efforts. These results indicate that it is the implementation of vegetable cultivation rather than the participation in an FPC that enhances the economic welfare of farmers, due to the non-excludability of FPCs' services as well as the risks involved in vegetable cultivation. |
| Keywords: | Farmers, Agricultural cooperative, Agricultural economies, Agriculture, Small farmers, Propensity score matching, Treatment effect |
| JEL: | O13 Q12 Q13 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper578&r=tra |
| By: | Juan Carlos Cuestas (Economics and Research Department,Bank of Estonia); Ying Sophie Huang (College of Economics & Academy of Financial Research, Zhejiang University); Bo Tang (Department of Economics, University of Sheffield) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates both the symmetric and asymmetric exchange rate exposures of Chinese financial firms in the context of an accelerated pace of RMB internationalisation. We find that an increasing number of Chinese financial firms are exposed to negative symmetric effects from the change in the trade weighted effective exchange rate. The evidence concerning asymmetries shows that after 2009 negative exchange rate shocks have a stronger effect on exposures than positive shocks. Changes in the bilateral exchange rate also have a significant impact on firm returns, given the importance of the USD in the effective exchange rate. Further, the empirical analysis reveals that exchange rate exposures are associated with firm level characteristics including total assets, earnings per share, net cash flows, investment incomes, total liabilities and firm size. Finally, we suggest that domestic and foreign stakeholders need to pay close attention to the movement of the Yuan’s exchange rate before it becomes completely convertible. |
| Keywords: | exchange rate exposure; RMB internationalisation; Chinese financial firms |
| JEL: | C58 F3 G15 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:shf:wpaper:2016006&r=tra |
| By: | Anna A. Dekalchuk (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Aleksandra Khokhlova (University of Tartu); Dmitriy Skougarevskiy (European University at St. Petersburg) |
| Abstract: | The European Parliament (EP) is viewed as a normal parliament. Voting patterns of its members (MEPs) are mainly aligned with transnational political groups, not national cleavages. Yet, it has been proven by many that MEP voting patterns are an outcome of conflicting pressures and a distorted indicator of their individual political orientations. In this study we rely on MEP written questions to the European Commission to measure the policy positions and their determinants. Using the universe of 100,000 such questions in 2002–2015 linked with MEP country and European Political Group affiliation data, we test whether one issue of high sensitivity to their domestic audiences — Russia — makes the MEPs take their nationality seriously and pay more attention to it regardless of their transnational partisan affiliations. We rely on supervised machine learning to uncover sentiment of every question asked on a negative-positive scale. Then we contrast the sentiment of questions related to Russia with the rest of questions conditional on party and national affiliation of the MEP asking the question. We find that (i) MEP question involving Russia is twice as negative in tonality as an average question, (ii) more variation in modality of Russia-related questions is explained by MEP national affiliation than her EPG. Our findings are robust to alternative methods of sentiment extraction and to controlling for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity of MEPs. |
| Keywords: | European politics, EU–Russia relations, European Parliament, written questions, text-as-data, sentiment mining. |
| JEL: | F55 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:35/ps/2016&r=tra |
| By: | 中村, 靖 |
| Abstract: | 金融統計の地理的対象はロシア帝国，ソ連，ロシア共和国の全体である．金融統計については，地域別統計情報を得ることが資料的，方法的に困難であるため，ロシアの地理的境界の変更を考慮した金融統計系列は作成できない．加えて，対象期間の大部分を占めるソ連期の金融制度が特殊であるため，金融統計指標を多国と比較することも，ロシア領域内で歴史的に比較することも困難である．ソ連期の社会主義のイデオロギーは貨幣と資本の廃絶を掲げていたのであり，後に述べるように短期間ではあるが銀行制度そのものが廃止されていた時期さえソ連期には存在していた．ソ連と市場経済の金融統計指標を比較する際には，慎重でなければならない．本稿では，まず統計指標の理解の前提となる各時期における金融制度の特徴を展望したのち，それぞれの時期の金融統計指標の特徴につい説明する．, It is difficult to adjust financial statistical data to territorial changes and to compare them between Russia Empire, the Soviet Union, and Russia, mainly because the financial systems in those three periods were very different from each other and that in a market economy. There was even a period when the banking system was abolished entirely in the early 1920s, although the period lasted less than one year. The financial system in the Russian Empire developed slow in relative to that in other West-European countries and was characterized by strong influence of the government. This characteristic seemed to be carried over in to the Soviet Union until the 1960s. State budget was at the center of the Soviet financial system, while bank financing had only a minor and subsidiary role. Even in the minor bank financing, the main financial source of bank loans was government deposits. This pattern of Soviet finance changed in the mid-1960s: the weight of bank financing increased rapidly. Household deposits almost exclusively financed the increasing bank loan supply, while the government sector turned to be a net absorber of financial resources. This financial system seemed unsustainable and, indeed, it collapsed eventually. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian financial system returned to a financial system more or less ordinary to a market economy; it is, however, still in the process to establish a sound financial system. The financial data are fragmental and often incomparable, reflecting all these developments in the Russian financial system. |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:rrcwps:57&r=tra |
| By: | Pawel Pisany (Warsaw School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this article is to present Single Supervisory Mechanism in the context of challenges in the post-crisis economy. One analyzed the topic from the perspective of non-euro area EU member state. The article consists of three main parts. Firstly, the short literature review related to banking crisis as a background for institutional reforms, was conducted. The second part refers to the legal base of SSM and its impact on the final shape of this institution. In the last part, the negative recommendation in terms of accession of Poland to SSM through OPT-IN procedure, was presented and justified by a simple economic game. |
| Keywords: | Single Supervisory Mechanism; banking regulations; banking crisis |
| JEL: | E61 G28 G21 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2016:no13&r=tra |
| By: | BUI, LINH; HOANG, HUYEN; BUI, HANG |
| Abstract: | Vietnamese rice production has achieved remarkable success over last decades. By the land and market reforms, known as “Doi Moi”, in which there were noticeable changes in policies such as land and production system were transformed from collective to individual contract system in 1980s, the process of legally privatization of farm properties, huge investment in irrigation system, Vietnam made progress in rice production. The country not only ensured its domestic demand but also started exporting rice and gradually became the second largest exporter in the world. An estimate of the constant elasticity of substitution function (CES) for Vietnam’s rice production is essential for the government to design effective policy on agricultural production. This study makes the first attempt to estimate the nested CES model for Vietnam rice production in 2012. The paper finds that the elasticity of substitution of Vietnam's nested CES model lies between 0.44 to 0.46. The results indicate that the weak substitutability between land and the nest (labor, capital) in the nested CES model. The paper also provides empirical evidence that the nested CES structure in which capital with land are nested inputs and labor plays a role as the third input is rejected. This suggests that it is impossible to take labor as the substitutable factor for land and capital. The findings would partly contribute to design the Vietnam’s effective policies on rice production with the appropriate allocation of inputs factors in order to achieve the optimal output. |
| Keywords: | Constant Elasticity of substitution, Levenberg-Marquardt method, Vietnam, rice production. |
| JEL: | C1 C5 C8 O1 O13 Q15 Q18 |
| Date: | 2015–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:71224&r=tra |
| By: | Kureková, Lucia Mýtna (Slovak Governance Institute); Žilinčíková, Zuzana (Masaryk University) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how attractive young returnees are in the labour market and how they behave relative to stayers. We use the online CVs of young people that are posted on the major Slovak job-search portal. The analysis is performed using a set of regression models that investigate attractiveness, salary expectations and positions of interest to returnees in comparison to stayers. We find that the post-accession foreign work experience increases the attractiveness of job candidates, but that attractiveness premium varies depending on the returnee's host country. Returnees are more demanding with respect to their minimum salary expectations and are more likely than stayers to apply for positions advertised abroad. Return migrants are a diverse group - women, graduates, or people returning to economically underperforming regions, continue to face disadvantages with labour market integration. |
| Keywords: | return migrants, employers, web data, labour market, integration, Slovakia |
| JEL: | F22 J23 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9921&r=tra |
| By: | Marcin Faldzinski (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland); Adam P. Balcerzak (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland); Tomas Meluzin (Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic); Michal Bernard Pietrzak (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland); Marek Zinecker (Brno University of Technology) |
| Abstract: | Identification of linkages among capital markets is crucial for forming policies that take into account risk associated with international financial markets in-terdependencies. Thus, the aim of the article is to analyse interdependencies among capital markets of Germany, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. The research hypothesis was given as follows: There is a similar course and changes in the inter-dependencies among capital markets of Germany and the markets of the mentioned countries of the Visegrad Group. In the research a DCC-GARCH model was applied. The model allowed to estimate conditional correlations that indicate strength of the interrelationship among the markets. Then, the cointegration analysis of the conditional correlations was conducted. The proposed econometric procedure allowed to verify the research hypothesis. It confirmed that the capital markets of Germany, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary are characterised with similar long-term path. Additionally, the research showed that changes in the direction and strength of the interrelationships among the studied markets are determined by the German capital market in the long-term, which is a leader in the region. |
| Keywords: | cointegration of interdependencies among capital markets, conditional correlation, DCC-GARCH model, conditional variance |
| JEL: | G15 C58 |
| Date: | 2016–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pes:wpaper:2016:no21&r=tra |
| By: | Konchyn, Vadym; Horban, Yuliia |
| Abstract: | The article is devoted to a retrospective analysis of transitional model of Ukrainian state’s economic behavior in the context of public goods’ distribution based on the Lala-Mint classification. The characteristics and nature of the rent of fractional oligarchic state as a stationary bandit in Ukraine are defined on the basis of the McGuire-Olson model. Using basic mathematical and graphical tools and also the results of built multiple regression models the potential effects of reducing or maintaining economic rent of the stationary bandit in Ukraine are reflected. The problem of economic bifurcation point was outlined for Ukrainian oligarchic state. |
| Keywords: | model of stationary bandit, economic point of bifurcation, fractional oligarchic state, facade democracy, distribution of public goods, economic interest of the state in the form of rent, behavioral models of the state, liberalization, European economic integration, people's capitalism. |
| JEL: | C32 E65 H10 H50 P27 |
| Date: | 2016–04–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:70953&r=tra |