This paper uses new firm-level data to examine the effects of breakups of the Czech firms and their subsequent privatization on corporate performance. Unlike the existing literature, which analyzes breakups almost exclusively in advanced economies, we control for accompanying ownership changes...

We employ a large panel data set and analyze efficiency in the Czech firms during 1998-2007. We investigate how their efficiency evolves over time and how it is affected by ownership structures. Methodologically we employ a panel version of a stochastic production frontier model. We distinguish...

This paper analyzes the technological efficiency of companies in the European Union (EU). Our extensive database covers more than 4 million firm/year observations from many EU countries including both manufacturing and service sectors in 2001–2007. Methodologically we apply a model of a...

In this article we analyze medium- and long-term effects of firm break-up (and subsequent change in ownership) on its profitability and productivity. We use an extensive data-set of the Czech firms for the period 1996-2005. We employ the propensity score based matching methodology to account for...

Learning is a subject of intense research in economics. We present persuasive evidence that learning took place among uninformed heterogeneous agents during a large-scale naturally-occurring set of auctions. Empirical study employs a unique bidding data set of 5000 individual investors that...

We analyze the extent of the integrated state control over the privatized companies in the Czech Republic during the decade of 1995-2005. During this period, the integrated potential of the state to control companies had a pyramid-like form. Even though the pyramid control was not fully...

We analyze effect of intraday information flow in three emerging EU stock markets-the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. We use five-minute intraday data on stock market index returns and 15 types of EU and U.S. macroeconomic announcements during 2004-2007. We measure each announcement as its...

The privatization strategy in many transition economies involved the creation of a special government agency that administered state property during privatization programs as well as after the privatization was declared complete. The National Property Fund (FNM) was the agency in the Czech...

We analyze corruption and economic freedom links to public finance and investment in new EU members. In terms of the public investment our results show that improvement in economic freedom is linked to increases in public investment while lowering of corruption is linked with increase or...

This paper proposes a test of iid distribution of data that allows to uncover nonlinear patterns in a time series. The proposed alternative (henceforth the K2K test) extends and generalizes the widely known BDS test. By its construction, it removes subjectivity in arbitrary choice of...