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Two sources of growth are firm learning and innovation. Using a unique panel data for 1,686 firms in six countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Turkey), this paper applies panel data estimators and Juhn-Murphy Pierce decomposition in order to identify the effects of the global economic crisis on sales growth of innovative and young enterprises in Eastern European countries. The results show that innovative and young firms were significantly more affected by the crisis than non innovative and older enterprises. The authors interpret these results as an indication that the achievement of pre-crisis growth rates in those countries may be difficult.

Achieving Shared Growth --- Annual growth --- Annual growth rate --- Business environment --- Corporate growth --- E-Business --- Economic Growth --- Economic growth --- Employment --- Entrepreneurship --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial crisis --- Financial Sector --- Firm size --- Firms --- Growth performance --- Growth prospects --- Growth rate --- Growth rates --- Human capital --- Industry --- International trade --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Merger --- Microfinance --- Negative impact --- Policy Research --- Poverty Reduction --- Private Sector Development --- Small Scale Enterprise

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This paper examines whether natural resource dependence has a negative influence on various indicators of institutional quality when controlling for the potential effects of other geographic, economic and cultural initial conditions. Analysis of a panel of countries from 1996 to 2010 indicates that a high degree of resource dependence, measured as the share of mineral fuel exports in a country's total exports, is associated with worse government effectiveness, as well as with reduced levels of competition across the economy. Furthermore, estimation of long-run elasticities suggests that government effectiveness and the intensity of domestic competition decrease over time as the dependence on natural resources increases. An illustration of the Russian case shows that the negative effects accumulate in the long run, leading to a worse deterioration of government effectiveness in Russia than in Canada, a country with a comparable resource endowment but far better overall institutional quality. This result is corroborated by a significant negative correlation found between regional resource dependence and an indicator of regulatory capture in Russian regions, which indicates that the regulatory environment is more likely to be subverted in regions that are more dependent on extractive industries. Overall, the findings would be consistent with a situation in which a generally weak institutional environment would allow resource interests to wield the bidding power accruing from export revenues to subvert the content of laws and regulations, as well as their enforcement. The fact that this is associated with negative externalities for the rest of the economy, notably by undermining a level playing field across non-resource sectors, sheds light on a potential channel for the resource curse.

Competition --- Dutch disease --- E-Business --- Economic Theory & Research --- Emerging Markets --- Environmental Economics & Policies --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Governance Indicators --- Institutions --- Natural resources --- Regulatory capture --- Resource curse --- World Governance Indicators --- Russia

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This paper uses the gravity model to analyze whether the varying export performance of Croatian counties can be explained by their proximity to border gates, ports, and other county-specific characteristics. The analysis finds that longer distances to border gates increase trade frictions significantly for many product categories, although these frictions have been decreasing between 2007 and 2012. The paper analyzes the county specific factors that are associated with variation in export performance, net of distance. Results show that exports are strongly and positively correlated with motorway and road density, the size of the labor force, low-skill ratio, and the number of patents. These variables are also associated with a greater diversity of exports in terms of products and destinations. Several general policy implications are highlighted. The significant association between motorway and road density and export volume, number of destinations, as well as the diversity of exported products may indicate that improvements in connectivity and facilitation of transport could still play a significant role in enhancing regional trade outcomes. Similarly, good performance in research and development may significantly help to spur competitiveness and allow local producers to enter new markets in products and destinations, which in turn can increase the level of diversification and boost resilience to global economic shocks.

Economic Geography --- Economic Theory & Research --- Export Performance --- Free Trade --- International Economics & Trade --- Law and Development --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Tax Law --- Trade Policy --- Transport --- Transport Economics Policy and Planning --- Transportation

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This paper examines productivity growth in Romania using balance sheet data for a census of Romanian firms in 2011-17. Three measures of productivity are estimated: labor productivity, revenue total factor productivity, and revenue total factor productivity adjusted for markups. Drawing from these measures, the paper follows a two-step approach to answer two fundamental questions: (i) who are the firms-and what are their key characteristics-driving and dragging productivity growth in Romania? and (ii) what are the drivers behind productivity expansion? A first step of the analysis characterizes productivity leaders and laggards, finding that companies at the domestic productivity frontier are older and larger, have higher capital intensity, and pay higher wages. Domestic market leaders charge higher markups, especially in manufacturing, but are not becoming more efficient. A second step of the analysis decomposes aggregate productivity growth and finds that reallocation of market shares to more efficient players has been the main driver in manufacturing but not in services, which are typically more sheltered from competition. At the same time, individual firms are becoming less productive, suggesting that there is scope to improve firm capabilities, particularly in services. These findings suggest a policy agenda for Romania centered on removing distortions to competition and boosting human capital.

Competition --- Competition Policy --- Enterprise Development and Reform --- Firm Productivity --- Market Leader --- Private Sector Development --- Private Sector Economics --- Productivity Growth --- Total Factor Productivity

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Like many other countries, Kazakhstan's economic growth has slowed since the 2007-09 global financial crisis. Although the slowdown reflected weaknesses in expanding labor and capital, the most striking reduction has been in productivity growth. In more recent years, total factor productivity growth has started to bounce back, albeit at a modest pace, possibly driven by the recovery in commodity prices. Although slower expansion in productivity has been a global phenomenon, Kazakhstan's subdued productivity performance for a decade reflects more structural problems. Against this backdrop, Boosting Productivity in Kazakhstan with Micro-Level Tools: Analysis and Policy Lessons examines barriers and policy gaps that hinder productivity growth in Kazakhstan. The detailed analysis is uniquely based on first-time access to administrative firm-level data; the data for the period of 2009-18 covered 70,000 business establishments annually, corresponding to total employment of 1.6 million people. The unprecedented access to firm-level data deepened the understanding of the microeconomic dynamics and drivers of aggregate productivity growth and enabled identification of a wide-ranging set of policy recommendations to boost aggregate productivity growth.

Industrial productivity