A multi-product cost function is estimated using data on the UK higher education system. The results are used to provide information about average incremental costs, economies of scale and economies of scope in a wide variety of institutions. Implications of the analysis are discussed for the...

This paper addresses a controversial issue in the current literature, namely the effects of trade liberalisation on labour market job flows. It studies the case of Ukraine where we view the sudden openness of the economy to trade as a quasi-natural experiment. We use disaggregated data on...

This paper analyses the Vietnam's rural credit market to understand the determinants of credit choices and to measure impacts of borrowing activities on borrower's consumption in the 1992-1998 period. There are three main results. First, there exists uniform access to formal credit among rural...

This paper analyses the relationship between accounting data and market price returns in the stock markets of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Given the different informational environment and accounting practices from those of developed markets, and relatively thinly traded Baltic stocks, the...

This paper aims to describe in detail the functioning of higher education institutions (IHEs) in Ukraine and to discuss some of the administrative and financial problems of higher education there. Problems in the education system naturally attract the attention of both experts and the public at...

With reference to the EU enlargement, a framework is derived which allows the study of the effect of unemployment benefits on the migration decision. While benefits simply increase the expected gain for risk neutral individuals, they work as an insurance device for risk averse migrants; the...

This paper analyses the new 1996 Ukrainian constitution as a product of far-reaching compromise; in particular it looks at the resolution of the ‘national question’, the form of government and the issue of socio-economic guarantees. Constitutions are most often perceived as an instrument of...

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...