129 research outputs found
Firm behavior under production uncertainty: Evidence from Russia
No full textEnterprises in post-socialist and transition economies often participate in providing infrastructure and social services to the surrounding community. We argue that this bundling of social and infrastructure goods provision with an enterprise’s core operations is a fully rational choice in an uncertain environment. Using a stylized model, we show that this activity can be largely related to efforts by firms to increase their operational reliability. Our unique survey data suggest that this manifests itself through provision of more reliable infrastructure, stronger employee attachment to the firm, and better relations with the authorities.uncertainty; enterprise performance; Russia
Coping with missing public infrastructure: An analysis of Russian industrial enterprises
No full textDuring the Soviet period industrial firms not only formed the backbone of the economy but also directly provided a wide range of benefits to their municipalities. Firms were in charge of supplying a great variety of social services, such as housing, medical care and day care. The need to divest at least some of these functions was generally accepted already in the early 1990s. Industrial firms' engagement in the provision of infrastructure services, such as heating, electricity and road upkeep has to date received much less attention. Using a unique dataset of 404 large and medium-sized industrial enterprises in 40 regions of Russia, this paper examines public infrastructure provision by Russian industrial enterprises. We find that, first, to a large degree engagement in infrastructure provision – as proxied by district heating production – is a Soviet legacy. Second, firms providing district heating to users outside their plant area are more likely to have close relations with the local public sector along many other dimensions.Russia; infrastructure; firm performance
The role of banks in monetary policy transmission: Empirical evidence from Russia
No full textThis paper focuses on the role of the banking sector in monetary policy transmission in an emerging economy with a rapidly developing financial system. Specifically, we exam whether the central bank's monetary policy stance affects banks' lending behaviour. Based on a comprehensive quarterly dataset on all Russian banks from 1Q1999 to 1Q2007, we find evidence for the existence of a bank lending channel in Russia. Contrary to several studies on developed economies, the level of a bank's capitalization matters for the transmission process. Better capitalized banks are less likely to adjust their lending practices following a change in the monetary policy stance.monetary policy transmission; bank lending; Russia
Risk-taking by Russian banks: Do location, ownership and size matter?
No full textThe Russian banking sector has experienced enormous growth rates during the last 6-7 years. The rapid growth of assets has, however, contributed to a decrease in the capital adequacy ratio, thus influencing the ability of banks to cope with risk. Using quarterly data spanning from 1999 to 2007 on all Russian banks, we investigate the relationship between bank characteristics and risk-taking by Russian banks. The analysis of financial ratios reveals that, on average, the risk levels are still below those observed in Central and Eastern Europe. Combining the group-wise comparisons of financial ratios and the results of insolvency risk analysis based on fixed effects vector decomposition, three main conclusions emerge. First, controlling for bank characteristics, large banks have higher insolvency risk than small ones. Second, foreign-owned banks exhibit higher insolvency risk than domestic banks and large state-controlled banks are, unlike other state-controlled banks, more stable. Third, we find that the regional banks engage in significantly more risk-taking than their counterparts in Moscow.bank risk-taking; banks in transition; Russia
Venäjän talous, Lucky Luciano ja Vladimir Putin
No full textKirja-arvostelu: From Soviet plans to Russian reality / Ilkka Korhonen & Laura Solanko (toim.). WSOYPro, 2010
Market power in the Russian banking industry
No full textThe aim of this paper is to analyze bank competition in Russia by measuring the market power of Russian banks and its determinants over the period 2001-2007 with the Lerner index. Earlier studies on bank competition have focused on developed countries whereas this paper contributes to the analysis of bank competition in emerging markets. We find that bank competition has only slightly improved during the period studied. The mean Lerner index for Russian banks is of the same magnitude as those observed in developed countries, which suggests that the Russian banking industry is not plagued by weak competition. Furthermore, we find no greater market power for state-controlled banks nor less market power for foreign-owned banks. We would consequently qualify the procompetitive role of foreign bank entry and privatization. Finally, our analysis of the determinants of market power enables the identification of several factors that influence competition, including market concentration and risk as well as the nonlinear influence of size.market power; bank competition; Russia
An Empirical Note on Growth and Convergence Across Russian Regions
No full textThis empirical note uses publicly available Goskomstat data to investigate income growth and convergence across Russian regions. Using data for 1992-2001, we find strong sigma divergence simultaneously with beta convergence. he results indicate that per capita income in Russian regions may be converging towards two separate steady states.The poorest regions seem to be converging among themselves, while growth experiences among other regions have been highly heterogeneous
Coping With Missing Public Infrastructure: An Analysis of Russian Industrial Enterprises
No full textDuring the Soviet period industrial firms not only formed the backbone of the economy but also directly provided a wide range of benefits to their municipalities.Firms were in charge of supplying a great variety of social services, such as housing, medical care and day care.The need to divest at least some of these functions was generally accepted already in the early 1990s.Industrial firms' engagement in the provision of infrastructure services, such as heating, electricity and road upkeep has to date received much less attention.Using a unique dataset of 404 large and medium-sized industrial enterprises in 40 regions of Russia, this paper examines public infrastructure provision by Russian industrial enterprises.We find that, first, to a large degree engagement in infrastructure provision - as proxied by district heating production - is a Soviet legacy.Second, firms providing district heating to users outside their plant area are more likely to have close relations with the local public sector along many other dimensions
Firms and public service provision in Russia
No full textThis paper reports first results from a survey of 404 middle-sized and large manufacturing firms from 40 Russian regions in April-June 2003. We examine the extent of social service and infrastructure provision by the firms and the firms’ assessment of the quality of public infrastructure and the regulatory environment. Background information of ownership, investment, performance, competition, and finance decisions of the firms is also gathered. The data reveal that despite major divestments of social services during 1990s, a great majority of firms still provide at least some form of social services. For example, 56% of the firms have their own housing or support local housing, and 73% of the firms have recreation facilities or support employee’s recreation activities. While managers view the social service provision as non-essential and costly, many of the firms continue to provide these services, even to users other than their own workforce. The quality of public infrastructure is generally assessed as being good or satisfactory; the respondents were the least satisfied with the quality of roads. Over a half of the firms provide their own heat, but mainly due to technological reasons – although public service interruptions do occur – and 24% of the firms give support to the maintenance and construction of public road network. The regulatory burden the firms face continues to be severe. In more than half of the firms, for example, the general manager has to spend more than two weeks in negotiations about public infrastructure with the authorities. These descriptive results indicate that there is still a lot scope for improvement in the quality and quantity of public service provision in Russia. Enterprises are still engaged rather heavily in social service provision, road network would require improvements, and the easing of regulatory burden should continue. Addressing these questions is likely to be vital for the sustainability of investments and growth in Russia. The paper is part of the project “Infrastructure and Welfare Services in Russia: Enterprises as Beneficiaries and Service Providers” financed by the Academy of Finland (project number 200936), the World Bank, and Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation. The project has also received support from the Bank of Finland Institute for Economies in Transition.
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