We have conducted the first survey on management practices in transition countries. We found that Central Asian transition countries, such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, have on average very poor management practices. Their average scores are below emerging countries such as Brazil, China and...

We use rich firm-level data and national input-output tables from 17 countries over the 2002-2005 period to test new and existing hypotheses about the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the efficiency of domestic firms in the host country (i.e., spillovers). We document that backward...

An emerging literature has demonstrated some unique characteristics of trade in differentiated products. This paper contributes to the literature by postulating that differentiated products may be subject to greater tariff evasion due to the difficulties associated with assessing their quality...

Does fractionalization change over (short periods of) time? If so, are there any substantial implications for economic performance? To answer such questions, we construct a new panel data set with measures of fractionalization for 26 former communist countries covering the period from 1989 to...

We test under what circumstances boards discipline managers and whether such interventions improve performance. We exploit exogenous variation due to the staggered adoption of corporate governance laws in formerly Communist countries coupled with detailed ‘hard’ information about the...

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Romanian rural economy has undergone massive changes. Increased urban unemployment has stimulated migration from towns to rural areas. Meanwhile, rural industries that were subsidised under communism have collapsed, causing rural unemployment....

In advanced market economies, the use of trade credits is an important way of short-term financing and generally considered as being part of normal business practice. Some transition economies, however, have experienced a rapid accumulation of trade credits which have led to interlocking webs of...

The aims of this study are to improve understanding of the dynamics of the rural non-farm economy in providing employment and income diversification opportunities in Armenia, Georgia and Romania. The study aims to focus on improving the well-being and livelihoods of the rural population, through...

In this paper the findings of a survey conducted in June 2001 in Armenia are summarised. The aim was to gain insight into the nature of the rural non-farm economy (RNFE) in the country. For that purpose, 21 rural communities in 3 regions (called marzes in Armenian) were non-randomly selected....