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Good and Bad Institutions: Is the Debate Over? Cross-Country Firm-Level Evidence from the Textile Industry

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  • Bhaumik, Sumon K.

    (University of Sheffield)

  • Dimova, Ralitza

    (University of Manchester)

Abstract

Using firm-level data from nine developing countries we demonstrate that (a) certain institutions like restrictive labour market regulations that are considered to be bad for economic growth might be beneficial for production efficiency, whereas (b) good business environment which is considered to be beneficial for economic growth might have an adverse impact on production efficiency. We argue that our results suggest that the debate about the implications of institutional quality is far from being over, and classification of institutions into "good" and "bad" might be premature.

Suggested Citation

  • Bhaumik, Sumon K. & Dimova, Ralitza, 2011. "Good and Bad Institutions: Is the Debate Over? Cross-Country Firm-Level Evidence from the Textile Industry," IZA Discussion Papers 5471, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5471
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    Cited by:

    1. Elitsa R Banalieva & Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra & Ravi Sarathy, 2018. "Dynamics of pro-market institutions and firm performance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 49(7), pages 858-880, September.
    2. Bhaumik, Sumon K. & Dimova, Ralitza & Kumbhakar, Subal C. & Sun, Kai, 2014. "More Is Better! What Can Firm-Specific Estimates of the Impact of Institutional Quality on Performance Tell Us?," IZA Discussion Papers 7886, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Brown, Drusilla & Dehejia, Rajeev & Robertson, Raymond, 2016. "Laws, Costs, Norms, and Learning: Improving Working Conditions in Developing Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 10025, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Bhaumik, Sumon K. & Dimova, Ralitza, 2012. "Does Human Capital Endowment of FDI Recipient Countries Really Matter? Evidence from Cross-Country Firm Level Data," IZA Discussion Papers 6382, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Sumon Kumar Bhaumik & Richard Frensch & Stephan Huber, 2021. "Political economy of labor market institutions in a globalised era," Working Papers 391, Leibniz Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung (Institute for East and Southeast European Studies).
    6. Kimberly A Eddleston & Ravi Sarathy & Elitsa R Banalieva, 2019. "When a high-quality niche strategy is not enough to spur family-firm internationalization: The role of external and internal contexts," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(5), pages 783-808, July.
    7. Beck, Stefan & Scherrer, Christoph, 2014. "Das transatlantische Handels- und Investitionsabkommen (TTIP) zwischen der EU und den USA," Arbeitspapiere 303, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.
    8. Fernanda Ricotta, 2019. "The Quality of Regional Government and Firm Performance," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(2), pages 27-40, February.
    9. Jones, Chris & Temouri, Yama & Kirollos, Karim & Du, Jun, 2023. "Tax havens and emerging market multinationals: The role of property rights protection and economic freedom," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 155(PB).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    stochastic frontier model; institutional quality; production efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

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