Employment and Wages in Enterprises Under Communism and in Transition: Evidence from Central Europe and Russia
Abstract
This paper presents a comparative analysis of employment and wage behavior of firms in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Russia during the late 1980s to the early 1990s. The four main findings are: 1) There is evidence of some (not excessive) labor hoarding before the transition and it disappeared shortly thereafter; 2) The estimated elasticities of demand grew over the transition, starting from zero in Russia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia and from sizeable levels in Hungary and Poland. By the end of the period, the elasticities for the four East European countries were quite similar and those for Russia had not changed significantly; 3) Once other factors are controlled for, there is no significant difference in the employment behavior among firms by ownership or legal status. However, Czech, Slovak and Polish private firms did pay higher wages than state-owned firms immediately after the start of the transition; 4) A closer examination in the Czech Republic of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and newly established firms indicates that SOEs had lower elasticities of employment and allowed less rent sharing than the newly established firms.Download Info
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Paper provided by William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan in its series William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series with number 114.Length: pages
Date of creation: 01 May 2000
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Handle: RePEc:wdi:papers:2000-114
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Keywords: Russia; central Europe; employment; wages;Other versions of this item:
- Swati Basu & Saul Estrin & Jan Svejnar, 2000. "Employment and Wages in Enterprises Under Communism and in Transition: Evidence From Central Europe and Russia," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 440, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
- NEP-ALL-2002-04-03 (All new papers)
- NEP-LAB-2002-04-03 (Labour Economics)
References
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Sorm, Vit & Terrell, Katherine, 2000.
"Sectoral Restructuring and Labor Mobility: A Comparative Look at the Czech Republic,"
Journal of Comparative Economics,
Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 431-455, September.
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"Privatisation, corporate control and employment growth: Evidence from a panel of large Polish firms, 1996-2002,"
Economic Systems,
Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 98-119, March.
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- Sorm, Vit & Terrell, Katherine, 1999.
"A Comparative Look at Labour Mobility in the Czech Republic : Where Have All the Workers Gone?,"
CEPR Discussion Papers
2263, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Vit Storm & Katherine Terrell, 1999. "A Comparitive Look at Labor Mobility in the Czech Republic: Where Have all the Workers Gone?," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 140, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
- Kate Bishop & Tomasz Mickiewicz, 2003. "While Labour Hoarding May Be Over, Insiders’ Control Is Not. Determinants Of Employment Growth In Polish Large Firms, 1996-2001," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 2003-593, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
- Tomasz Mickiewicz & Kate Bishop, 2003. "Wage Determination: Privatised, New Private And State Owned Companies. Empirical Evidence From Panel Data," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 584, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
- Jan Svejnar, 2001.
"Transition Economies: Performances and Challenges,"
William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series
415, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
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"The Wage Curve Reloaded,"
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1665, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
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- Natalia V. Smirnova, 2003. "Re-employment Probabilities and Wage Offer Function for Russian Labor Market," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 547, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
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- Jan Svejnar, 2002. "Labor Market Flexibility in Central and East Europe," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 496, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
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"The optimality and overuse of labour in Estonian manufacturing enterprises,"
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