Interest in the status and functions, the potentials and the vulnerability of the academic profession has grown in recent years. International comparison is of special interest in this context: are the problems experienced universal or country-specific? Are there options and conditions in...

This paper discusses the transformation of the Soviet state banking system into the Bank of Latvia and its further restructuring, which led to the formation of the Latvian state joint-stock commercial bank Latvian Unibank. It is argued that its foundation and development was complicated by...

The purpose of this note is to highlight certain facts about the sex ratio (the number of females per thousand males) of the population in some Indian states, especially those in the northeast of the country. The states in the northeast are ethnically, linguistically and culturally very distinct...

This paper studies indigenous insurance groups using evidence from urban areas in Benin. Many of these informal institutions co-exist within neighbourhood-distance. They are based on well-defined rules and regulations, offering premium-based insurance for funeral expenses, as well as other forms...

This paper first examines various definitions of Kornai's soft budget constraint (SBC) and the difficulties involved in interpreting data on losses, subsidies and financing, and then considers selective evidence from transition economies. Stocks of overdue trade credit are no larger than in...

This paper provides a detailed analysis of the Polish Bank Conciliation Agreement (BCA) and relations between state owned enterprises and banks during transition. The study is conducted from the perspective of the enterprises implementing BCAs with debt /equity swaps and regular BCAs using data...

Is Greece a reforming economy? The purpose of this paper is to present the evolution and structure of the banking sector in Greece, with reference to the parallel experiences of the Eastern European (EE) countries. In Section 2, we are concerned with the domestic economic environment within...

This paper examines the role of entry to and concentration of the export sector in Polish exports performance during 1992-97. Comparison with changes during the first years of transition as well as cross-sectional analysis is included. The paper shows the emergence of new tendencies in the...

In the light of first-hand data from a Beninese urban household survey in Cotonou, we investigate several motives aiming to explain participation in Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs). We provide empirical findings which lead us to think that the main reason why individuals join a...

The paper discusses the problem of informal employment in Russia, its structure and the factors contributing to the individual decisions making when choosing specific employment type. Informal employment is a highly diverse area comprising individuals with different profiles and motivations to...