We analyze how intellectual abilities and education affect investors’ risk-adjusted returns in the stock market. To investigate such effects, we use educational performance measured by standardized exams and the type and specialty of a university degree obtained.  The data used covers one...

In our recent work (Liivamägi, Vaarmets, & Talpsepp, 2014), we study how education and mental abilities affect investors’ risk adjusted performance on the stock market. We use a dataset from Tallinn stock exchange, covering stock market transactions from a full business cycle along with...

This paper investigates determinants of lending growth and cyclicality in banks of 15 Central and Eastern European countries during the period of 2004-2010. The results support, as expected, cyclicality in lending growth, but contrary to expectations, the association between GDP growth and...

Within the first 20 years of the market economy in Estonia, the public school market has been decentralized in Tallinn. Firstly, we describe how students are allocated to primary schools in a narrative, and secondly, in a formal mechanism design language. We indicate the closest equivalent...

In our recent work (Vaarmets, Liivamägi and Talpsepp (2014)), we offer strong evidences that people with higher mental abilities are more likely to participate in the stock market. We dig deeper into the behaviour of individual investors and can give a more precise picture how education and...

Countries in the Asia and Pacific region have shown many macroeconomic similarities such as current account surpluses, exchange rate appreciation, export-oriented economies, growth success, etc. This paper argues that there may be one more macroeconomic feature to add to the list: strong tax...

Estonia introduced a new corporate income tax system in 2000, under which corporate profit is taxed only when it is paid out as dividends to shareholders. The switch to distributed profit or dividend taxation was billed as a means to attract investment, support enterprises and increase...

This article presents empirical analysis of the effects of school choice policy in Estonia. We show that relying on market and giving autonomy to the schools over student selection without any central priority matching or other central guidelines will produce admission tests, even in...