During 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...

Perfect integration eludes the real world, so we suggest a realistic benchmark standard for judging the extent of market integration in various economies.We estimate the degree of integration in the US product market, widely acknowledged to be the most integrated among geographically large...

Just as in established market economies, many Russian firms provide non-wage benefits such as housing, medical care or day care to their employees.Interpreting this as a strategic choice of firms in an imperfect labor market, this paper examines unique survey data for 404 large and medium-size...

Using data for 265 banks in Central and Eastern European Countries for the period of 1995-2003, this paper analyses the differences in profitability between domestic and foreign banks.We show that foreign banks, especially greenfield institutions, earn higher profits than domestic banks.However,...

We present a new composite leading indicator of economic activity in mainland China, estimated using a dynamic factor model.Our leading indicator is constructed from three series: exports, a real estate climate index, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange index.These series are found to share a...

This paper analyzes the spatial structure of goods market integration in Russia, characterizing regions into three states: (a) integrated, (b) not integrated but trending toward integration, and (c) not integrated and not trending toward integration.Using time series of the cost of a staples...

This paper surveys recent advances in empirical studies of the monetary transmission mechanism (MTM), with special attention to Central and Eastern Europe.In particular, while laying out the functioning of the separate channels in the MTM, it explores possible interrelations between different...

Lacking data on price levels across locations (countries, national regions, etc.) for crossspace comparisons, researchers resort to local consumer price indexes (CPIs) over time to evaluate these levels.This approach unfortunately fails to specify, even generally, the exactness of such...

We examine money demand in the Chinese economy during a period characterized by significant disinflation and outright deflation, coupled with strong output growth.Our study establishes a stable money demand system for broad money M2.Inflation affects the adjustment of the system towards...

The paper investigates the ability of monetary authorities to keep the real exchange rate undervalued over the long run by implementing a policy of accumulating foreign exchange reserves.We consider a model of a three-sector, small, open economy, where the central bank continuously purchases...