Simplifying entry regulation has been a popular reform since the publication of Djankov et al (2002). The inclusion of business entry indicators in the World Bank’s Doing Business project has led to an acceleration in reform: in 2003-2008, 193 reforms took place in 116 countries. A large...

This paper assesses the possible impact of a Euro-Mediterranean Agreement (EMA) on Egypt and Jordan and identifies policy options that will increase the benefits of free trade with Europe. The extent to which these countries will benefit from an EMA depends greatly on the investment response and...

We survey the research on the effect of employment laws in developing countries, using papers published since 2004. The survey is further supported by cross-country correlation analyses. Both exercises show that developing countries with rigid employment laws tend to have larger informal sectors...

We compare results from a pilot study on entrepreneurship in China and Russia. Compared to non-entrepreneurs, Russian and Chinese entrepreneurs have more entrepreneurs in their family and among childhood friends, value work more relative to leisure and have higher wealth ambitions. Russian...

We identify the presence of soft budgets and analyse their impact on enterprise restructuring in Romania over the initial transition period. A simple analytical framework is developed to show that hardened budget constraints foster rationalization of costs, but not active restructuring. The...

WTO members are starting to consider whether and how to develop multilateral disciplines on competition policies. These discussions are taking place in the absence of concerted efforts to compile comparable information on the conditions of competition existing on member country markets. We argue...

We use a sample of 147 countries to investigate the link between democracy and reforms. Democracy may be conducive to reform, because politicians have the incentive to embrace growth-enhancing reforms to win elections. On the other hand, authoritarian regimes do not have to worry as much about...

In the first half of the 1990s many Central and East European countries (CEECs) experienced very high growth rates of exports to OECD nations. This paper investigates the contribution of sources of comparative advantage and economic restructuring on the pattern, composition and volume of trade....

This paper discusses the potential role of a Euro-Mediterranean Agreement (EMA) in helping Middle East and North African governments implement structural economic reforms. The arguments for and against preferential liberalization are summarized, identifying a number of necessary conditions for...

We survey the empirical literature analysing the process of enterprise restructuring in transition economies. The survey provides new insights into the relative effectiveness of different reform policies, and into how this effectiveness varies across regions. We study the effects of...