The Evolution of the Russian Saving Bank Sector During the Transition Era

Following the 1988 banking reform in Russia there was an enormous increase in the number of (registered) commercial banks. The Russian savings bank sector went through a period of shakeout after the August 1995 interbank crisis. Large banks were able to expand their market shares in the deposits market as a result of scale advantages and advertising. Entrants unsuccessfully sought to gain market share by having high deposit rates

Nearly Unbiased Estimation in Dynamic Panel Data Models with Exogenous Variables

This paper introduces a new estimator for the fixed effects dynamic panel data model with exogenous variables. This estimator does not share some of the drawbacks of recently developed IV and GMM estimators and has a good performance even in small samples. The nearly unbiased estimator is derived as a bias correction of the within estimator (least squares dummy variable estimator). The estimator is applied to a model of unemployment dynamics at the U.S. state level for the 1991-2000 period

Technological Inefficiency and the Skewness of the Error Component in Stochastic Frontier Analysis

This paper concentrates on negatively skewed one-sided distributions as an explanation of the occurence of positive (negative) skewness in the case of stochastic production (cost) frontier analysis. It takes as example the binomial distribution that can have negative or positive skew and derives the method-of-moments estimators

Interest and Hazard Rates of Russian Saving Banks

The number of (registered) commercial banks in Russia increased at a fast pace after the 1988 banking reform. Many of these banks lacked supervision and operated with dangerously low funding capital. In this paper we investigate the determinants of the hazard rates of banks active on the Moscovian deposits market during the 1994-97 period. We find that market share and duration have had a negative effect on the hazard rate, while the interest rate offered has had a positive effect

The Lag Structure of the Impact of Business Ownership on Economic Performance in OECD Countries

This paper investigates the impact of changes in the number of business owners on three measures of economic performance, viz. employment growth, GDP growth and labor productivity growth. Particular attention is devoted to the lag structure. The analysis is performed at the country level for 21 OECD countries. Our results confirm earlier evidence on three stages in the impact of entry on economic performance: an initial direct positive effect, followed by a negative effect due to exiting capacities and finally a stage of positive supply-side effects. The net effect is positive for employment and GDP growth. Changes in the number of business owners have no effect on labor productivity

Overoptimism among Founders: The Role of Information and Motivation

This study empirically investigates factors that influence overoptimism across nascent entrepreneurs. We distinguish between two main groups of determinants (information, motivation) and three types of overoptimism (income, psychological burden, leisure time). Findings indicate that entrepreneurs who have relevant business information are more realistic and that entrepreneurs with a high level of general knowledge, acquired through education or previous (unrelated) entrepreneurial experience, are more overoptimistic. External advice and business planning do not appear to limit subsequent overoptimism. Entrepreneurs are less overoptimistic about the pecuniary or non-pecuniary benefits of self-employment when these benefits are closely related to the initial motivation for starting up the business

Competition and Market Dynamics on the Russian Deposits Market

In the early transition era in Russia entry barriers for commercial banks were about absent. It resulted in the mushrooming of hundreds of small, poorly-endowed and inexperienced banks. In this paper we address the question whether the claimed benefits of low entry barriers - competition and market dynamics - have resulted. We use a sample of commercial saving banks for the 1994-97 period. We conclude that there were important mobility barriers and that the removal of entry barriers did not lead to intensified competition

Allocation and Productivity of Time in New Ventures of Female and Male Entrepreneurs

[Please note that there exists an updated version of this publication at http://hdl.handle.net/1765/8989] This study investigates the factors explaining the number of hours invested in new ventures, making a distinction between the effect of preference for work time versus leisure time and that of productivity of work time. Using data of 1247 Dutch entrepreneurs, we find that time invested in the business is determined by various aspects of human, financial and social capital, availability of other income, outsourcing, side activities and gender. We show that some of the identified factors relate to preferences and others to productivity. Women appear to invest less time in the business as a result of a range of indirect productivity effects

Does Entrepreneurship Reduce Unemployment?

The relationship between unemployment and entrepreneurship has been shrouded with ambiguity. There is assumed to be a two-way causation between changes in the level of entrepreneurship and that of unemployment-- a "Schumpeter" effect of entrepreneurship reducing unemployment and a "refugee" or "shopkeeper" effect of unemployment stimulating entrepreneurship. The purpose of this paper is to try to reconcile the ambiguities found in the relationship between unemployment and entrepreneurship. We do this by introducing a two equation model where changes in unemployment and in the number of business owners are linked to subsequent changes in those variables for a panel of 23 OECD countries over the period 1974-1998. The existence of two distinct and separate relationships between unemployment and entrepreneurship is identified including significant "Schumpeter" and "refugee" effects

Allocation and Productivity of Time in New Ventures of Female and Male Entrepreneurs

This paper investigates time allocation decisions in new ventures of female and male entrepreneurs using a model that distinguishes between effects of preferences and productivity on the number of working hours. Using data of 1,158 entrepreneurs we find that the preference for work time in new ventures relates to start-up motivation, propensity to take risk and availability of other income. Productivity of work time relates to human, financial and social capital endowments and the prevalence of outsourcing activities. This study also evaluates actual profit effects one year after start-up. We find that on average women invest less time in the business than men. This can be attributed to both a lower preference for work time (driven by risk aversion and availability of other income) and a lower productivity per hour worked (due to lower endowments of human, social and financial capital)