This second edition of this publication provides an overview of important contemporary issues relating to foreign direct investment (FDI) and multinational enterprises for all those who are interested in this subject, but are not always in a position to follow diverse perspectives and what is...

This paper examines the impact of improved trade facilitation measures and institutional capacity in a set of economies in transition Europe. Our results suggest that behind-the-border barriers play an important role in determining bilateral trade flows (controlling for the effects of tariffs,...

The absence of new business in Russia is striking. Reforms to make Russia more competitive should start with eliminating regulatory and institutional barriers to the entry of new competitors. Many industrial firms in Russia have undergone changes in ownership, but relatively few have been...

Progress in reforming China's state owned enterprises (SOEs) has been a litmus test for assessing the Chinese leadership?s willingness to seek membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO). The more extensive the reform of the SOEs, the more resilient they would become to the rigors of the...

While many industrial firms in Russia have undergone ownership change, relatively few have competitively restructured. This paper, using survey and other data, suggests much of Russian industry is immune from robust competition due to seller/buyer concentration in select markets, a high degree...

The State industrial sector is the Achilles heel of China's otherwise remarkable economic performance over the past two decades. Most other countries in transition from socialism have transformed SOEs into commercial entities through systematic, market-driven restructuring and privatization to...

"After the 1998 Russian economic crisis, there are new opportunities for sustained growth in many countries of the former Soviet Union. Against this backdrop, the authors of this book analyze the dynamics of macroeconomic and structural developments in Eastern Europe and Russia, with special...

The move to deregulate natural gas field markets is likely to stimulate changes in the way the downstream segments of the industry are regulated. In particular, because the uncertainty endemic to freer upstream markets will emerge for the first time in the contemporary gas industry, the relative...