The Productivity Effects of Privatization in Ukraine: Estimates from Comprehensive Manufacturing Firm Panel Data, 1989–2005

This paper estimates the effect of domestic and foreign privatization on multifactor productivity (MFP) using long panel data for nearly the universe of initially state-owned manufacturing firms in Ukraine. The longitudinal dimension of the data is used to measure and control for pre-privatization selection bias and to estimate long-run impacts. The data imply steadily increasing MFP as a result of domestic privatization, reaching about 25 percent relative to state-owned firms after six years. Until recently, Ukraine has had relatively few cases of privatization to foreign investors, and estimates of the MFP impact are more sensitive to controls for selection bias, but the results suggest foreign privatization produces a productivity advantage of about 40 percent in 2004–2005.productivity, privatization, selection bias, foreign ownership, Ukraine

Whither the Language Lab?

Language Labs have experienced many changes over thepast several years, from changes in names to changes in direction.This edited transcription of a panel discussion at the1994 TESOL conference by six experienced language lab directorsprovides an informal and free-wheeling discussionabout the following questions: (1) What's in a name (change)?(2) What is the most appropriate role for technology with respectto language learning and teaching? (3) What is the roleof the language lab vis-a-vis faculty and adminis tration? (4)What are students' perceptions of language labs? (5) Whathas had the greatest impact on language labs over the last tento twenty years? (6) What are the fundamental characteristicsof the ideal lab director? (7) What is the greatest challengefacing the language lab today, as well as into the next decade?(8) Whither the language lab? What direction do we see ourselvesmoving in the next generation

More than Dollars for Scholars: The Impact of the Dell Scholars Program on College Access, Persistence and Degree Attainment

Although college enrollment rates have increased substantially over the last several decades, socioeconomic inequalities in college completion have actually widened over time. A critical question, therefore, is how to support low-income and first-generation students to succeed in college after they matriculate. We investigate the impact of the Dell Scholars Program which provides a combination of generous financial support and individualized advising to scholarship recipients before and throughout their postsecondary enrollment. The program's design is motivated by a theory of action that, in order to meaningfully increase the share of lower-income students who earn a college degree, it is necessary both to address financial constraints students face and to provide ongoing support for the academic, cultural and other challenges that students experience during their college careers. We isolate the unique impact of the program on college completion by capitalizing on an arbitrary cutoff in the program's algorithmic selection process. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that although being named a Dell Scholar has no impact on initial college enrollment or early college persistence, scholars at the margin of eligibility are significantly more likely to earn a bachelor's degree on-time or six years after high school graduation. These impacts are sizeable and represent a nearly 25 percent or greater increase in both four- and six-year bachelor's attainment. The program is resource intensive. Yet, back-of-theenvelope calculations indicate that the Dell Scholars Program has a positive rate of return

Did states' motor voter programs help the Democrats?

The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993 required all states to establish "motor voter," mail-in and agency registration procedures prior to the 1996 Presidential election. Using state-level data for the 1976-94 period on party registration, we analyze the party registration impacts of state programs that were precursors to the NVRA. "Active" motor voter programs roughly similar to those mandated by the NVRA are found to significantly increase the proportion of registrants on the rolls who are unaffiliated with either major party. Mail-in registration shows no impact on party registration, while agency registration significantly increases the Democratic share of the two-party registration total -- despite the fact that most agency programs in our sample period were far weaker than NVRA mandates.voting, elections

The Determinants of IMF Loan Programs

This paper focuses on the bargaining process underlying financial arrangements between the IMF and recipient countries. The primary aim is to investigate the relationship between the own country characteristics, both in terms of macroeconomic conditions and bargaining power, and the outcome of the agreement with the Fund. IMF lending practices respond to economic conditions but are also sensitive to other factors that reflect the importance of the country within the international financial community (measured by the bilateral trade volume between the country and the OECD countries and by debt service) and the importance of the country within the international politics (measured by the UN voting patterns between the country and the USA, the colonial past and by country share of IMF quotas).

The existence of refinement mappings

AbstractRefinement mappings are used to prove that a lower-level specification correctly implements a higher-level one. We consider specifications consisting of a state machine (which may be infinite- state) that specifies safety requirements, and an arbitrary supplementary property that specifies liveness requirements. A refinement mapping from a lower-level specification S1 to a higher-level one S2 is a mapping from S1's state space to S2's state space. It maps steps of S1's state machine to steps of S2's state machine and maps behaviors allowed by S1 to behaviors allowed by S2. We show that, under reasonable assumptions about the specification, if S1 implements S2, then by adding auxiliary variables to S1 we can guarantee the existence of a refinement mapping. This provides a completeness result for a practical, hierarchical specification method

How transition paths differ: enterprise performance in Russia and China

We use enterprise data to analyse and contrast the determinants of enterprise performance in China and Russia. We find that in China, enterprise growth and efficiency is associated with rapid increases in factor inputs, but not correlated with ownership or institutional factors. However, in Russia, enterprise growth is not associated with increases in factor quantity (except for labor) or quality. The main determinants of company performance are instead demand and institutional factors at a regional level. We explore possible interpretations of these results, including the impact of institutional and managerial quality

The Nature, Timing and Impact of Broadband Policies: a Panel Analysis of 30 OECD Countries

We empirically investigate the impact of a vast array of public policies on wireline broadband penetration through a novel and unique dataset covering 30 OECD countries, over 1995-2010. We find that while both supply and demand-side policies have a positive effect on broadband penetration, their relative impact depends on the actual stage of broadband diffusion. When an advanced stage is reached, only demand-side policies appear to generate a positive and increasing effect. Moreover, both technological and market competition play a positive role, and the effect of the latter shows a non-linear path along the stage of market development. Finally, the relative weight of the service sector in the national economy reveals to be crucial for broadband penetration. Our analysis provides new insights into the policy debate and in particular on the rationale of a selective policy design for broadband penetration and, in perspective, for the rollout of next-generation networks.telecommunications policies, broadband penetration, infrastructure investments

Privatization Methods and Productivity Effects in Romanian Industrial Enterprises

Comprehensive panel data on privatization transactions and labor productivity in Romanian industrial corporations are used to describe the post-privatization ownership structure, and to estimate the effect of Romania's diverse privatization policies on firm performance. The econometric results show consistently positive, highly significant effects of private ownership on labor productivity growth, the point estimates implying an increased 1.0 to 1.7 percentage growth for a 10 percent rise in private shareholding. The strongest estimated impacts are associated with sales to outside blockholders; insider transfers and mass privatization are estimated to have significantly smaller-although still positive-effects on firm performance.Romania, privatization, Earle, Telegdy, Upjohn