Interventions designed to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are popular among policy makers, given the role SMEs play in job creation around the world. Business support interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are often based on the assumption that market failures and...

We analyze the ties between 4,000 Japanese corporations in the time period from 2004 until 2013. We combine data about the board composition with ownership relationships and indicators of corporate profitability. We find that both the network of corporate board interlocks as well as the...

This paper examines two important aspects of the firms, firstly, it identifies the factors responsible for firm-level corruption, and secondly it investigates the impact of corruption on firm performance in 147 economies using the data set of World Bank's Enterprise Survey. Two indicators, that...

This paper uses unique Finnish firm-level micro data on service imports, work-force composition, and firm characteristics to examine changes in employment composition and performance of Finnish service importers during a period of a significant increase in services imports (2002-2012). We use...

There is a growing body of evidence on the efficacy of Short-Time Compensation (STC), a subsidy to promote worksharing in a recession, in achieving its intended goal of curtailing layoffs and preventing a sharp rise in unemployment. However, very little is known about the consequences of STC for...

Recent changes in the accounting legislation regarding the accounting and disclosure of research and development (R&D) expenditure in the financial statements have triggered this research on the importance of this kind of activities and their impact at microeconomic level. Using survey data, a...

Employee representatives in firms are a potentially key but not yet studied source of the impact of unions and works councils. Their actions can shape multiple drivers of firm performance, including collective bargaining, strikes, and training. This paper examines the impact of union rep...

This study uses the current financial crisis as a quasi-experiment to examine whether and to what extent corporate boards affect the performance of firms. Using cumulative stock returns over the crisis to measure of firm performance, we find that board independence, as traditionally defined,...

This paper studies the impact of federal state shareholdings on the performance of Russian companies.It differs from most similar studies in two respects.Firstly, it focuses on mixed ownership companies rather than conventional state enterprises.Secondly, it distinguishes between several types...

During the Soviet period industrial firms not only formed the backbone of the economy but also directly provided a wide range of benefits to their municipalities.Firms were in charge of supplying a great variety of social services, such as housing, medical care and day care.The need to divest at...