There has been a substantial shift from public housing to voucher-based housing assistance over the past decade, largely in response to the rising cost of public housing and the high rates of crime, unemployment and school failure among public housing residents. Despite this shift, there is...

We use a total of 1171 estimates extracted from 34 previous studies and perform a meta-analysis to examine the relationship between ownership structures and firm performance in the Czech mass-privatized firms. We find that, in contrast to the remarkable effect of foreign ownership on firm...

We explore an overlooked aspect of the design of the Czech voucher privatization programme, namely, the consequences of allowing individuals to distribute their vouchers among the voucher privatization funds (VPFs). We develop and analyse a model of voucher privatization in which we study the...

Voucher privatisation that proceeded in the Czech Republic in the 1990s was a realisation of a unique experiment which resulted in the transfer of almost half of state-owned enterprises to private hands within two years. A substantial part of these private hands was represented by intermediaries...

We use a total of 1171 estimates extracted from 34 previous studies and perform a meta-analysis to examine the relationship between ownership structures and firm performance in the Czech mass-privatized firms. We find that, in contrast to the remarkable effect of foreign ownership on firm...

The most likely outcome of the strategy of voucher privatization with investment funds may be a two-sided grab fest by fund managers and enterprise managers-along with drift, stagnation, and decapitalization of the privatized industrial sector.Common wisdom among post-socialist reformers has...

This study develops a dynamic model of bidding behavior to investigate the Czech voucher privatization process, which took place in two waves of bidding rounds, the first in 1992 and the second in 1994. It examines the voucher mechanism from the standpoint of investors and the pricing and...

This paper evaluates the impact of privatization on the development of capital markets in a two-country general equilibrium model. We draw particular attention to two divestment techniques, share issue privatizations (in developed market systems) and voucher privatizations (in transition...

The aim of this paper is to test the permanent income hypothesis on Czech voucher privatization. This form of privatization moved state assets to households and represented an unexpected windfall gain for participants of the privatization scheme. Whether the windfall was consumed or saved is...

The paper analyses the investment behaviour of individual investors and privatization funds if the first wave of the voucher privatization using Czech data. It first summarizes privatization methods applied in the case of the Czech Republic and the rules of voucher privatization. Then a simple...

The natural experiment of voucher privatization in the Czech Republic is used to test whether prices that were adjusted in a limited number of discrete steps based primarily on the extent of excess demand or supply are able to fully reflect both public and private information. Early in the...

A fundamental question in economics since the 1930s has been whether an administrative price system could simulate the results of perfect competition even without a true market for the means of production. The theoretical possibility of such a system has been known since the introduction of...

This paper discusses key findings of the Financial System Stability Assessment (FSSA) on Moldova. The assessment reveals that vulnerabilities of the financial sector appear to be manageable. Stress tests on likely scenarios do not indicate major vulnerabilities for the banking system as a whole....

This paper presents the Slovak Republic’s Financial System Stability Assessment Update including Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes on Banking Supervision and Insurance Regulation. Commercial banks are by far the dominant financial institutions, though nonbank financial...

Voucher privatization in the Czech Republic presented a natural experiment of the ability of investors to construct their portfolios under conditions of asymmetric information and the absence of stock market prices. This paper provides a theoretical model of an optimal portfolio choice made by...

Focus is made on the historical circumstances of the arising of the Czech capital markets. Transformation from state-owned enterprises to private businesses and corporations, via coupon (or voucher) privatization, i.e. distribution of shares to a large number of small shareholders, required a...

This paper discusses key findings of the Ex Post Assessment of Longer-Term Program Engagement for Mongolia. The paper assesses Mongolia’s progress in implementing its transition to a market economy, economic stabilization, and reform programs supported by the IMF during 1991–2004,...

Learning is a subject of intense research in experimental economics. We contribute to this debate by presenting persuasive evidence that learning took place among uninformed heterogeneous agents on a quasi-stock market during a large-scale natural experiment that by size, incentives, and...

In just over a decade after independence, the three Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, have transformed themselves into fully functioning, small open-market economies that will be joining the European Union. Capital Markets and Financial Intermediation in The Baltics analyzes the...

We analyze the effect of ownership on post-privatization performance in a virtually complete population od medium and large firms privatized in a model large-scale privatization economy (Czech Republic). We find that concentrated foreign ownership improves economic performance, but domestic...

We analyze the effect of ownership on post-privatization performance in a virtually complete population of medium and large firms privatized in a model large-scale privatization economy (Czech Republic). We find that concentrated foreign ownership improves economic performance, but domestic...

This paper assesses Serbia and Montenegro’s First Review Under the Extended Arrangement (EA). Serbia and Montenegro’s economic and policy performance has remained good under the current EA, but daunting challenges lie ahead. Macroeconomic policies need to be carefully calibrated to...

Activity and fiscal policy continue to exceed expectations, but strong bank credit growth has fuelled a sharp increase in the current account deficit. In this context, the new administrations recognize the need to establish the macroeconomic stability quickly. These actions are supported by...

The command economy that the Czech Republic inherited from the communist system was considered unreformable. It seems as if the social and economic transition of ex-communist countries is necessary for their full inclusion among democratic countries with highly developed market economic systems....

This paper works with a broad data sample of Czech voucher-privatized firms. The period of 1996 - 1999 enables to capture true post-privatization effects. It analyzes the effect of ownership structure on corporate performance and firm's characteristics. Results show that overall ownership...

In 1992 the Czech Republic privatized state assets, which resulted in some citizens receiving an unexpected windfall. Whether the windfall was consumed or saved provides a clear test of the permanent income hypothesis in a transitional economy. Analysis of data from a survey conducted...

There has been a substantial shift from public housing to voucher-based housing assistance over the past decade, largely in response to the rising cost of public housing and the high rates of crime, unemployment and school failure among public housing residents. Despite this shift, there is...

A fundamental question in economics since the 1930s has been whether an administrative price system could simulate the results of perfect competition even without a true market for the means of production. The theoretical possibility of such a system has been known since the introduction of...

We explore an overlooked aspect of the design of the Czech voucher privatization programme, namely, the consequences of allowing individuals to distribute their vouchers among the voucher privatization funds (VPFs). We develop and analyse a model of voucher privatization in which we study the...

Following the alleged "success" in Czechoslovakia, voucher privatization with investment funds became the form of privatization favored across the transition economies from Mongolia to Slovenia by the "Washington consensus" and by the most prominent and vocal western economic advisors. But the...

This article pays attention to a unique process at the beginning of the 1990s, representing a principal change to the social and economic reality in Czechoslovakia during that period. After the ?Velvet Revolution? resulted in the collapse of the communist political system, it was essential to...

This article pays attention to a unique process at the beginning of the 1990s, representing a principal change to the social and economic reality in Czechoslovakia during that period. After the gVelvet Revolution" resulted in the collapse of the communist political system, it was essential to...

This paper evaluates the impact of privatization on the development of capital markets in a two-country general equilibrium model. We draw particular attention to two divestment techniques, share issue privatizations (in developed market systems) and voucher privatizations (in transition...

This paper uses a specific experiment — „voucher privatization“ in the former Czechoslovakia — to test the permanent income hypothesis of consumer behavior. Voucher privatization (the mass privatization of state-owned assets through publicly offered vouchers) led to an unexpected...

This paper investigates the relationship between ownership concentration and enterprise performance in Ukraine. Using data on 376 medium and large enterprises, it finds that ownership concentration is positively associated with enterprise performance in Ukraine. The paper also finds that...

This paper takes stock of the current state of development of the financial systems in five Central European transition economies (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia) that are also leading EU accession candidates. It presents both a progress report and an...

The study focuses on corrective fiscal policies for 2000, the budgets for 2001, and the agenda for structural reform. An important issue discussed in revising the 2000 budgets was the expenditure policy required to contain spending commitments within available resources. The authorities have...

Russia and other countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States that have implemented voucher privatization programs have to account for the puzzling behavior of insiders--manager-owners--who, in stripping assets from the firms they own, appear to be stealing from one pocket to fill the...

This is a study of the determinants of share pricing and demand in the path-breaking Czech voucher-based multiple-round mass privatization auction. The results presented here document that share valuation and demand in this auction were based on firm characteristics such as return on sales,...

The paper concentrates on the criticism of the Czech neo-liberal transformation strategy resulting from its implementation. It brings about an analysis of major factors leading to adverse effects on the restructuring of former big state-owned enterprises, on the structure of Czech exports (due...