Comparative Economic Studies最新文献

We compare the economic growth performance of Belarus and Lithuania since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Our interest in this country pair is driven by the two countries' interwoven history as well as by the fact that Belarus remains autocratic and strongly tied to Russia, while Lithuania has reinvented herself as a democratic market economy fully integrated into the EU. Our aim is to understand better the extent to which the growth differential between the two countries can be traced to increased efficiency, i.e., total factor productivity, in the use of capital and other resources via, inter alia, better institutions (intensive growth) as opposed to sheer accumulation of capital (extensive growth), the hallmark of Soviet economic growth. To this end, we compare the development of some key determinants of growth in the two countries since the 1990s. Employing a simple growth accounting model we find that institutional reforms, open and transparent governance, and good education play a more important role for output and efficiency than crude capital accumulation. Hence Lithuania does better than Belarus, which remains marred by problems related to weak governance as well as autocratic rule. As in Estonia and Latvia we find that the EU perspective made a significant contribution to growth in Lithuania. The Russian connection has done less for Belarus. At last, we also touch upon the impact of the corona virus on the economies of the two countries.

This paper traces the survival status of 93,260 Russian business firms in the period of 2007-2019 and empirically examines the determinants of the acquisition of financially distressed companies (i.e., distressed acquisitions). We found that, of 93,260 firms, 50,743 failed in management, and among these distressed firms, 10,110 were rescued by acquisition during the observation period. Our empirical results indicate that, in Russian regions, the weakness of the legal system tends to increase the probability of distressed acquisitions, while other socioeconomic risks negatively affect it. These tendencies are common in most industries and regions. It is also revealed that, in the most-developed area, monotown enterprises are more likely than other firms to be bailed out by acquisition after management failure, but it is not always true for the whole federation.

We explore under different exchange rate regimes how fiscal rules and institutions can reduce the procyclical stance of fiscal policy (i.e. how government spending responds to GDP fluctuations). We construct a fiscal rules index which is a composite index measuring the overall strength of fiscal rules in a country at a given time. We use it in a dynamic model with a GMM estimator, for a panel of 153 countries over the period 1993-2015. We find that under fixed exchange rate regimes, while better institutions can reduce procyclicality, rules increase it or do not affect it. This result suggests that under fixed exchange rate regimes, a focus should be put on stronger institutional quality rather than on the adoption of fiscal rules. However, under flexible exchange rate regimes, we find that institutions and rules are complementary in reducing procyclicality. Rules help reduce procyclicality and are more effective, in particular, when institutions are stronger. Our results are robust to different specifications as well as to the use of alternative variables of institutional quality.

This paper investigates the dynamics and drivers of gender gaps in employment rates, wages, and work hours during the COVID-19 pandemic, relying on Estonian Labor Force Survey data for 2009-2020. We document that the pandemic has, if anything, reduced gender inequality in all three domains. The evolution of inequalities revealed cyclical pattern mirroring infection rate, with upswings largely driven by parenthood and gender segregation into industries. The results suggest that labor market penalties for women with young children and women employed in affected sectors may last longer than the pandemic, threatening to widen gender inequality in a long run.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1057/s41294-022-00198-z.