Suchergebnisse

AbstractThis paper uses a unique, comparable firm‐level dataset covering more than 80 developing middle‐income economies to provide a novel set of stylized facts on firms engaging in international trade, focusing on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. We show that firms in MENA are more likely to export and/or import than their counterparts elsewhere. However, we only find the expected positive and significant productivity premia for exporters outside of MENA. While MENA's larger exporters are indeed more productive than non‐exporters, a large share of exporters – the comparatively low‐volume ones – are not. We also confirm positive and significant size and productivity premia for manufacturers that import only, with productivity premia in MENA at least double of those in middle‐income economies elsewhere. In contrast, we find no size or productivity premia for MENA's manufacturers that export, but do not import. These patterns are consistent with substantial distortions in the relative fixed and variable costs of trading, likely a reflection of selectively applied policies.

We study the long run effects of a unique historical place-based policies targeting R&D: the creation of "Science Cities" in former Soviet Russia. The establishment of Science Cities and the criteria for selecting their location were largely guided by political and military-strategic considerations. We compare current demographic and economic characteristics of Science Cities to those of appropriately matched localities that were similar to them at the time of their establishment. We find that in the modern Russian economy, despite the massive cuts of governmental support to R&D that followed the dissolution of the USSR, Science Cities host more high-skilled workers and more developed R&D and ICT sectors; are the origin of more international patents; and generally appear to be more productive and economically developed. Within a spatial equilibrium framework, we interpret these findings as the result of the interaction between persistence and agglomeration forces. Furthermore, we rule out alternative explanations that have to do with the differential use of public resources, and we find limited support for a case of equilibrium reversion. Finally, by analyzing firm-level data we obtain evidence in favor of spillover effects with a wide spatial breadth.

AbstractWe have conducted the first large‐scale survey on management practices in transition countries. We found that Central Asian transition countries, such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, have on average very poor management practices. Their average scores are below developing countries such as India. In contrast, the Central European transition countries such as Poland and Lithuania operate with management practices that are only moderately worse than those of Western European countries such as Germany. As we find these practices are strongly linked to firm performance, this suggests that poor management practices may be impeding the development of Central Asian transition countries. We find that competition, multinational ownership, private ownership and human capital are all strongly correlated with better management. If causally interpreted, this would imply that the continued opening of markets to domestic and foreign competition, privatization of state‐owned firms and increased levels of workforce education should promote better management, and ultimately faster economic growth.