Entrepreneurial activity is a key contributor to economic growth, innovation and the development of a market economy in transition countries. Data from the Life in Transition Survey reveal that financial sector development and access to credit are the most important drivers of entrepreneurship....

The literature has identified the quality of political institutions in the transition region as an essential but understudied component of growth, transition and reform. This paper aims to disentangle the determinants of democratic institutions by investigating if high income inequality is...

Using the 2010 Life in Transition Survey, we show that localities with higher religious diversity have more respondents who have tried to set up a business. Although religious diversity also correlates with a higher start-up probability (following trial), this effect is driven by access to...

This paper studies the effect of religious and linguistic diversity in a given locality on individual entrepreneurial behaviour, and finds that cultural diversity and entrepreneurship follow an inverted U-shaped pattern. We make three theoretical contributions. Unlike previous research, we are...

Insolvency practitioners from 88 countries describe how debt enforcement will proceed against an identical hotel about to default on its debt. We use the data on time, cost, and the likely disposition of the assets (preservation as a going concern vs. piecemeal sale) to construct a measure of...

We examine the patterns of media ownership in 97 countries around the world. We find that almost universally the largest media firms are owned by the government or by private families. Government ownership is more pervasive in broadcasting than in the printed media. We then examine two theories...

We present new data on effective corporate income tax rates in 85 countries in 2004. The data come from a survey, conducted jointly with PricewaterhouseCoopers, of all taxes imposed on "the same" standardized mid-size domestic firm. In a cross-section of countries, our estimates of the effective...

In mid-2009 Simeon Djankov, who had dealt with a variety of economic and financial crises as chief economist for finance and private sector development at the World Bank, was suddenly thrust into the job of finance minister of his native Bulgaria. For nearly four years in that post, he attended...

The fall of communism 25 years ago transformed the political and economic landscape in more than two dozen countries across Europe and Asia. In this volume, political leaders, scholars, and policymakers assess the lessons learned from the "great rebirth" of capitalism and highlight the policies...

From 16 to 19 January at RANEPA Gaidar forum was held - the largest discussion forum, where the elite of government, business and fundamental science discussed vectors of development of the world economy. This year the main topic of the international conference were the issues of integration of...