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Employment and Wages in Enterprises Under Communism and in Transition: Evidence from Central Europe and Russia

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  • Swati Basu
  • Saul Estrin
  • Jan Svejnar

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.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan in its series William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series with number 114.

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Length: pages
Date of creation: 01 May 2000
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wdi:papers:2000-114

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Keywords: Russia; central Europe; employment; wages;

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References

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  1. Münich, Daniel & Svejnar, Jan & Terrell, Katherine, 1999. "Returns to Human Capital Under the Communist Wage Grid and During the Transition to a Market Economy," CEPR Discussion Papers 2332, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  2. Lizal, Lubomir & Singer, Miroslav & Svejnar, Jan, 1997. "Enterprise Break-ups and Performance During the Transition," CEPR Discussion Papers 1757, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  3. Orley Ashenfelter & James N. Brown, 1985. "Testing the Efficiency of Employment Contracts," Working Papers 573, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
  4. Barberis, Nicholas & Maxim Boycko & Andrei Shleifer & Natalia Tsukanova, 1996. "How Does Privatization Work? Evidence from the Russian Shops," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(4), pages 764-90, August.
  5. R)chard E. Quandt & Harvey S. Rosen, 1989. "Endogenous Output in an Aggregate Model of the Labor Market," NBER Technical Working Papers 0074, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  6. Svejnar, J., 1984. "Bargaining power, fear of disagreement and wage settlements: theory and evidence from U.S. industry," CORE Discussion Papers 1984037, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
  7. Rodrik, Dani, 1992. "Foreign Trade in Eastern Europe's Transition: Early Results," CEPR Discussion Papers 676, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  8. Jan Svejnar, 1978. "On the Theory of a Participatory Firm," Working Papers 493, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
  9. Prasnikar, Janez, et al, 1994. "Behavior of Participatory Firms in Yugoslavia: Lessons for Transforming Economies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(4), pages 728-41, November.
  10. Bresson, G & Kramarz, F & Sevestre, P, 1992. "Heterogeneous Labor and the Dynamics of Aggregate Labor Demand: Some Estimations Using Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 153-68.
  11. János Kornai, 1994. "Highway and Byways: Studies on Reform and Postcommunist Transition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262111985.
  12. Aghion, Philippe & Blanchard, Olivier & Burgess, Robin, 1994. "The behaviour of state firms in eastern Europe, pre-privatisation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 1327-1349, June.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. 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.
  2. Mickiewicz, Tomasz & Gerry, Christopher J. & Bishop, Kate, 2005. "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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Jan Svejnar, 2001. "Transition Economies: Performances and Challenges," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 415, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
  7. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew J., 2005. "The Wage Curve Reloaded," IZA Discussion Papers 1665, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  8. 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.
  9. Tichit, Ariane, 2006. "The optimal speed of transition revisited," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 349-369, June.
  10. 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.
  11. Jaan Masso & Almas Heshmati, 2004. "The optimality and overuse of labour in Estonian manufacturing enterprises," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 12(4), pages 683-720, December.
  12. Maxim Bouev, 2004. "Diverging Paths: Transition in the Presence of the Informal Sector," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 2004-689, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
  13. Stefan Bojnec, 2003. "Wage formation during economic transformation: macroeconomic facts and firm survey evidence from Slovenia," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 15(4), pages 571-593.

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