Mariana Iootty

Are natural resources cursed ? an investigation of the dynamic effects of resource dependence on institutional quality

This paper examines whether natural resource dependence has a negative influence on various indicators of institutional quality when controlling for the potential effects of other geographic, economic and cultural initial conditions. Analysis of a panel of countries from 1996 to 2010 indicates that a high degree of resource dependence, measured as the share of mineral fuel exports in a countrys total exports, is associated with worse government effectiveness, as well as with reduced levels of competition across the economy. Furthermore, estimation of long-run elasticities suggests that government effectiveness and the intensity of domestic competition decrease over time as the dependence on natural resources increases. An illustration of the Russian case shows that the negative effects accumulate in the long run, leading to a worse deterioration of government effectiveness in Russia than in Canada, a country with a comparable resource endowment but far better overall institutional quality. This result is corroborated by a significant negative correlation found between regional resource dependence and an indicator of regulatory capture in Russian regions, which indicates that the regulatory environment is more likely to be subverted in regions that are more dependent on extractive industries. Overall, the findings would be consistent with a situation in which a generally weak institutional environment would allow resource interests to wield the bidding power accruing from export revenues to subvert the content of laws and regulations, as well as their enforcement. The fact that this is associated with negative externalities for the rest of the economy, notably by undermining a level playing field across non-resource sectors, sheds light on a potential channel for the resource curse.

Productivity growth in Europe

This paper tests whether structural or firm-specific characteristics contributed more to (labor) productivity growth in the European Union between 2003 and 2008. It combines the Amadeus firm-level data on productivity and firm characteristics with country-level data describing regulatory environments from the World Banks Doing Business surveys, foreign direct investment data from Eurostat, infrastructure quality assessments from the Global Competitiveness Report, and credit availability from the World Development Indicators. It finds that among the 12 newest members of the European Union, country characteristics are most important for firm productivity growth, particularly the stock of inward foreign direct investment and the availability of credit. By contrast, among the more developed 15 elder European Union member countries, firm-level characteristics, such as industry, size, and international affiliation, are most important for growth. The quality of the regulatory environment, measured by Doing Business indicators, is importantly correlated with productivity growth in all cases. This finding suggests that European Union nations can realize significant benefits from improving regulations and encouraging inward and outward foreign direct investment.

Will the crisis affect the economic recovery in eastern European countries ? evidence from firm level data

Two sources of growth are firm learning and innovation. Using a unique panel data for 1,686 firms in six countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Turkey), this paper applies panel data estimators and Juhn-Murphy Pierce decomposition in order to identify the effects of the global economic crisis on sales growth of innovative and young enterprises in Eastern European countries. The results show that innovative and young firms were significantly more affected by the crisis than non innovative and older enterprises. The authors interpret these results as an indication that the achievement of pre-crisis growth rates in those countries may be difficult.

Product Market Policies in Romania: A Comparison with EU Partners

Romanias European Union accession in 2007 has resulted in a substantial reduction of the formal barriers to integration with the European Union Single Market. This study takes stock of the progress by benchmarking product market policies in Romania to those of European Union countries, as measured by the OECD indicators of Product Market Regulation. These indicators allow for a comprehensive mapping of policies affecting competition in product markets. Comparison with European Union countries reveals that, for half of the policy areas covered by the study, Romanias product market policies are more restrictive of competition than most direct comparators in the region, whereas for other indicators Romania is on a par with the European Union average or has achieved best practice. Nonetheless, these results should be interpreted in light of the fact that the Product Market Regulation approach measures officially adopted policies and does not capture implementation. Future reforms should be directed both at improving official regulation and, where policies that favor competition are already in place, toward effective enforcement.

Export performance and geography in Croatia

This paper uses the gravity model to analyze whether the varying export performance of Croatian counties can be explained by their proximity to border gates, ports, and other county-specific characteristics. The analysis finds that longer distances to border gates increase trade frictions significantly for many product categories, although these frictions have been decreasing between 2007 and 2012. The paper analyzes the county specific factors that are associated with variation in export performance, net of distance. Results show that exports are strongly and positively correlated with motorway and road density, the size of the labor force, low-skill ratio, and the number of patents. These variables are also associated with a greater diversity of exports in terms of products and destinations. Several general policy implications are highlighted. The significant association between motorway and road density and export volume, number of destinations, as well as the diversity of exported products may indicate that improvements in connectivity and facilitation of transport could still play a significant role in enhancing regional trade outcomes. Similarly, good performance in research and development may significantly help to spur competitiveness and allow local producers to enter new markets in products and destinations, which in turn can increase the level of diversification and boost resilience to global economic shocks.

Regulation, Trade and Productivity in Romania: An Empirical Assessment

Inappropriate regulation can influence productivity performance by affecting incentives to invest and adopt new technologies, as well as by directly curbing competitive pressures. Results of a labor productivity growth model for European countries suggest that improving the regulatory environment -- proxied by the Worldwide Governance Indicators regulatory quality indicator -- and boosting effective exposure to competition through increasing trade integration -- expressed as the ratio of exports plus imports to gross domestic product -- have positive effects on productivity growth. In Romania a 10 percent increase in openness to global trade over 1995-2010 would have boosted productivity growth by 9.7 percent per year. A 10 percent increase in openness to European Union trade, in particular, would have led to an annual increase in productivity of 7 percent. Realizing the benefits from trade integration depends to some extent on regulation. In this regard, the effects of regulation on productivity growth are found to be positive, regardless of the indicator used to measure regulation, and both through direct and indirect channels (by increasing the speed at which a country catches up with productivity leaders). Simulation results also show how countries with different levels of regulatory quality would benefit from a regulatory improvement: had Romania improved its regulatory environment to the same level as Denmark in 2010, its annual productivity growth would have been 14 percent higher over 1995-2010.

Instituições Jurídicas e Desempenho de Empresas no Brasil DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18836/2178-0587/ealr.v4n1p35-55

This paper analyses the specific mechanisms through which legal institutions and the Rule of Law affect firm performance using survey evidence from a sample of about 100 Brazilian firms in the textile and electronics industries. The data provide firms’ perceptions of whether judicial institutions are just, impartial, corruptible, swift, accessible, consistent and effective, which allowed to create an index of firms’ perception of legal institutions. It is analyzed how these perceptions vary across firms with different characteristics, such as large/small employer, foreign/domestic-owned, exporter/non-exporters and revenues level. The results suggest that firms that had a better perception of the Judiciary increased levels of employment and had better economic performance.