The impact of regulation on the economic performance of regulated sectors depends crucially on the appropriateness of the design of the regulatory agencies' structure and process, that is, on regulatory governance. Governance refers not to the policies that emerge from regulation, but rather to...

The objective of this report is twofold: to provide a comprehensive assessment of the state of regulatory governance in infrastructure industries in Brazil and to suggest possible indicators for future monitoring. After the introduction, Section 2 sets up the analytical framework for the report,...

This paper applies meta-analysis techniques to a sample of 37 studies published during 2004-2011. These papers assess the impact of direct subsidies on business research and development. The results show that the effect of public investment on research and development is predominantly positive...

This paper explores fundamental issues affecting technology commercialization of publicly funded research and development (R&D) in the Russian Federation. Despite substantial R&D investments, Russia has experienced a decline in scientific output and employment. Nevertheless, the innovation...

Drawing on a representative sample of firms, this paper presents some microeconomic evidence on the productivity growth process in Croatia since the onset of recession (2008-12). Four types of results are highlighted. First, there is a persistent (and increasing) heterogeneity in the performance...

One of the most extraordinary events in Brazil in the past 30 years has been the country’s “agricultural revolution.” In the 1970s, food scarcity was a concrete risk in a country experiencing rapid urbanization and middle class expansion. Food scarcity concerns reemerged during the...

We apply a Heckman selection model to the 2003-Investment Climate Survey (ICS) to investigate supply-side constraints to export performance at the firm level in Ecuador. To correct for the non-random truncation problem, we use the Heckman selection model to estimate the probability of exporting...