The relationship between economic freedom and economic growth has always been frequently discussed in the economic literature. Economic freedom is often believed to enhance economic growth, which in turn creates more economic freedom. The first part of this paper studies the transition process...

Although the theoretical literature has identified various sizeable benefits from foreign direct investment inflows (FDI), the empirical literature has been unable to establish a positive and significant impact of FDI on the rates of economic growth of host countries. One reason for this...

The paper seeks to assess how a major policy regime change – such as the introduction of the currency board in Bulgaria – affects the flow of bank credit to the corporate sector. An attempt is made to identify the determinants of corporate credit separately from the viewpoint of lenders and...

The thesis consists of four separate papers that can be read individually.In the first paper “Efficiency of the Polish Banking Industry: Foreignversus Domestic Banks” we analyze the efficiency of foreign and domesticbanks. The second paper entitled “Foreign Acquisitions and Industry...

This thesis examines banking efficiency and the productivity of thirteentransition Central and Eastern European banking systems during 1998-2003 usingData Envelopment Analysis (DEA). It proposes a non-parametric methodology fornon-radial Russell output efficiency measure of banking firms,...

This study analyzes the extent to which nutritional status in terms of weight change has been affected by the income distribution as the economy has grown. Is BMI growth different at different tails of the income distribution? Health and nutritional outcomes are not normally expected to be...

In this paper, I estimate the price elasticity of residential electricity demand using household-level panel data for Russia. The study takes advantage of the variation in tariffs across regions and over time, as well as the introduction of increasing block rate (IBR) tariff schemes in a number...

In this article, we explore whether organized clusters can act as institutional entrepreneurs to create conditions favorable to innovation in their constituent members. We view self-aware and organized clusters as "context-embedded meta-organizations" which engage in deliberate decision- and...

This paper examines the effects of macroeconomic policy reforms of trade and investment liberalization on gender earnings inequality during the post-transition period using panel data from Hungarian Wage and Earnings Survey and other statistical sources for 21 industrial categories. The results...

There are growing concerns about income inequality and health, while little is known about the relationship between income inequality and nutritional outcomes, especially in a transition economy like China. To fill this gap, the aim of this study is to explore the effect of income inequality on...