I explore the extent to which insufficient labor market flexibility is an important factor causing Central and East European (CEE) economies to perform worse than they could and hence slowing down their readiness to enter the European Union. My conclusion is that labor market flexibility is an...

After a decade of structural reforms, unemployment rates have tripled in Argentina. This paper is concerned with the measurement of unemployment risk and its distribution. We show the importance of considering re-incidence in the measurement of unemployment risk and develop a methodolgy to do...

This paper reports new and unique firm level survey evidence to investigate the micro economic nature of the growth process and structural change in three transition countries, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. In particular we investigate gross job creation and destruction in newly established...

Using the matching function and the monthly and yearly data from 1992 to 2000 of 76 Czech districts, this paper studies district specific characteristics affecting matching efficiency. Among the conclusions, it was found that the higher the educational level of the labour force and the higher...

This paper analyses Russian city growth during the command and transition eras. Our main focus is on understanding the extent to which market forces are replacing command forces, and the resulting changes in Russian city growth patterns. We examine net migration rates for a sample of 171 medium...

The increase in wage inequality in Russia during its transition process has far exceeded the increase in wage dispersion observed in other European countries undergoing transition. Russia also has an extremely large incidence of wage arrears. We analyse to what extent wage arrears affect the...

We look at the determinants and consequences of job reallocation in the 22 2-digit sectors of the manufacturing industry in Poland over the period 1993-1997. Import competition and competitve market structure (weak concentration) are found to lead to more reallocation. Moreover, more...

We present a model of neighborhood effects in wage payment delays. Positive feedback arises because each employer’s arrears affect the late payment costs faced by other firms in the same local labor market, resulting in a strategic complementarity in the practice. The model is estimated on...

Inter-firm information exchange with respect to the reliability of trade partners may be unmediated in the sense that it involves direct communication between the personnel of two firms. Alternatively, this information flow may be channeled by or through an organization such as a trade...

Recent Eurobarometer survey data are used to document and explain the stock of social capital in 28 European countries. Social capital in Central and Eastern Europe – measured by civic participation and access to social networks – lags behind that in Western European countries. Using...