Working paper
A “de Soto Effect” in Industry? Evidence from the Russian Federation
Concerns about population ageing apply to both developed and many developing countries and it has turned into a global issue. In the forthcoming decades the population ageing is likely to become one of the most important processes determining the future society characteristics and the direction of technological development. The present paper analyzes some aspects of the population ageing and its important consequences for particular societies and the whole world. Basing on this analysis, we can draw a conclusion that the future technological breakthrough is likely to take place in the 2030s (which we define as the final phase of the Cybernetic Revolution). In the 2020s – 2030s we will expect the upswing of the forthcoming sixth Kondratieff wave, which will introduce the sixth technological paradigm (system). All those revolutionary technological changes will be connected, first of all, with breakthroughs in medicine and related technologies. We also present our ideas about the financial instruments that can help to solve the problem of pension provision for an increasing elderly population in the developed countries. We think that a more purposeful use of pension funds' assets together with an allocation (with necessary guarantees) of the latter into education and upgrading skills of young people in developing countries, perhaps, can partially solve the indicated problem in the developed states.
We analyze institutional determinants of the development of local currency (LCY) corporate bond markets in the period from 2010 to 2016. We consider a wide range of indicators of the quality of institutional environment: the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom, the Worldwide governance indicators, the World Economic Forum’s indicators of corporate culture, development and regulation of financial markets. Unlike most previous studies, we test not only static regression models (multifactor linear regressions), but also dynamic models based on the generalized method of moments, which allows to solve the problem of endogeneity of variables.
The results show that low quality of institutional environment, macroeconomic and financial instability stimulate growth of the share of LCY corporate bonds in the total issuance volume. In the periods of instability LCY corporate bonds become less attractive for foreign investors, and issuers are forced to raise capital in the domestic market. The most significant factors in both static and dynamic model specifications are the World Bank’s indicators of regulatory quality and rule of law. A decline in sovereign credit ratings also gives impetus to the development of LCY corporate bond markets.
An original result is that more developed stock markets suppress the growth of LCY corporate bond markets: equity and corporate bonds are competing financing sources for companies from developing countries. A developed banking sector contributes to the growth of the LCY corporate bond market: banks act as dealers and market makers. Devaluation of the national currency has a significant positive influence on the explained variable.
The essay focuses in the issue of sustainable healthcare systems development, in the poorest countries particular, and the taken measures to tackle it in three main areas: maternity care, children's mortality reduction and struggle against HIV/AIDS and other dangerous diseases. The author highly estimates the impact of intellectual property rights on the possibilities for providing universal access to medical services in the developing countries.
In the article are considered various approaches to the problem of the choice of investments' level of the company: a number of the factors which influence the investment activity of the company is revealed; influence of return on investments (ROI) on the investment policy is analysed. The review of economic researches on determinants of investment policy of the companies is studied, various approaches to calculation of ROI are considered. The basic steps and results of the empirical research based on the russian companies' data are presented.
Five papers analyze the bidirectional relationship between poverty and migration in developing countries. Papers discuss the patterns of migration in Tanzania (Kathleen Beegle, Joachim De Weerdt, and Stefan Dercon); work-related migration and poverty reduction in Nepal (Michael Lokshin, Mikhail Bontch-Osmolovski, and Elena Glinskaya); the evolution of Albanian migration and its role in poverty reduction (Carlo Azzarri, Gero Carletto, Benjamin Davis, and Alberto Zezza); migration choices, inequality of opportunities, and poverty reduction in Nicaragua (Edmundo Murrugarra and Catalina Herrera); and how developing country governments can facilitate international migration for poverty reduction (John Gibson and David McKenzie). Murrugarra is Senior Economist in the Latin America and Caribbean Region at the World Bank. Larrison is a PhD candidate and Assistant Teacher in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at George Washington University. Sasin is Economist in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Department at the World Bank. Index.
We study the relationship between SMS (small medium size) firm ownership structure and obstacle to finance. The empirical research considers both the concentration of the company's ownership (controlling owner) and the presence of foreign participants in the equity capital. Our aim is to identify those determinants of financial markets (bond market development), legal institutions and firms characteristics in the transition economies of the post soviet countries that can be considered as barriers to attracting financial resources. This paper sheds light on large shareholders’ influence on obstacle to finance.
The paper examines the structure, governance, and balance sheets of state-controlled banks in Russia, which accounted for over 55 percent of the total assets in the country's banking system in early 2012. The author offers a credible estimate of the size of the country's state banking sector by including banks that are indirectly owned by public organizations. Contrary to some predictions based on the theoretical literature on economic transition, he explains the relatively high profitability and efficiency of Russian state-controlled banks by pointing to their competitive position in such functions as acquisition and disposal of assets on behalf of the government. Also suggested in the paper is a different way of looking at market concentration in Russia (by consolidating the market shares of core state-controlled banks), which produces a picture of a more concentrated market than officially reported. Lastly, one of the author's interesting conclusions is that China provides a better benchmark than the formerly centrally planned economies of Central and Eastern Europe by which to assess the viability of state ownership of banks in Russia and to evaluate the country's banking sector.
The paper examines the principles for the supervision of financial conglomerates proposed by BCBS in the consultative document published in December 2011. Moreover, the article proposes a number of suggestions worked out by the authors within the HSE research team.