We use data from over 20,000 firms in 60 countries to identify constraints on the growth offirms. We interpret managers´ answers to survey questions on the extent to which variousaspects of their external environment inhibit the performance of their firm as measuring theshadow cost of...

We analyze a large stratified random sample of firms that provide us with measures ofperformance and each firm’s top manager’s perception of the severity of businessenvironment constraints faced by his/her firm. Unlike most existing studies that rely onexternal and aggregated proxy measures of...

Innovation process represents the long wave of value creation and it is the main powerful driver of future economic results of firms and nations. It therefore follows that for nations to compete suc-cessfully in the long run, they must innovate; and innovating entails building new competencies,...

Based on Schumpeterian theoretical considerations, this paper investigates the innovation behavior of firms during the severe economic crisis of the year 2008/2009. It focuses on transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which have completely restructured their...

Thirty years ago, a vast share of the poor and middle income countries were heavily state-controlled. The effects of the liberalizations in the 1980s and 1990s differed strongly between regions in Africa, Asia and Europe. This paper first documents these differences in refirm effects in a...

Even before the onset of the 2008 global financial crisis and ongoing European debt crisis, much attention has been given to the re-emergence of the Asian giants, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and India. Both countries have attained unprecedented growth and economic development—PRC...