Over the past 15 years, while China’s economy has become more complex and export driven, Russia's economy has become less complex and less competitive. Economic policies have so far largely failed to boost two key drivers of economic development: knowledge and capability building. Building on...

The global financial crisis has reignited the debate about the risks of financial globalisation, in particular the international transmission of financial shocks. We use data on individual loans by the largest international banks to their various countries of operations to examine whether...

The protection of property rights is more and more recognised as a core issue for improvement of the investment climate in Russia. In many post-privatisation Russian enterprises, shareholder rights have been severely disregarded by self-dealing transactions of the management, share dilution,...

This paper examines the main policy and structural determinants of the intensity of competition at the enterprise level across transition economies, presenting new evidence based on an enterprise-level survey and a legal survey directed to both competition agencies and legal experts in the area...

The economies of central and eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have traditionally been very energy intensive. Energy intensity (defined as energy use per GDP) has decreased in the course of transition, but progress has been uneven and most transition countries still use several times as...

This paper examines the different strategies adopted by individuals in transition economies to cope with labour market restructuring. Using micro-data from seven countries at different stages of transition, we focus on “active” coping strategies, in particular mobility and entrepreneurship....

This paper examines the performance of 515 banks in 16 transition economies for the years 1994-99 based on their public financial accounts. We first examine lending behaviour and probability distribution of bank profitability to determine whether these banks exhibit behaviour and performance...

The paper discusses the Russian power sector reform plan, approved by the government in July 2001, which outlines the framework for competition and changes in ownership structure. The paper focuses on the following issues related to the plan: restructuring of regional energos and large...

This paper investigates the extent to which the financial sector in south-eastern Europe (SEE) responds to the needs of the local private sector. It does so through an analysis of the sources of finance used by enterprises when making fixed investments, and by looking at the level of banking...

Recent studies have focused on the characteristics and policies of the state to explain the extent and causes of corruption, with little attention paid to the role played by firms. Consequently, the links between corporate governance and national governance have been unexplored. This paper...