Central Bank Independence, Accountability and Transparency: The Case of Ukraine

This paper discusses different dimensions and measurements of central bank independence, the arguments and possible drawbacks of granting more autonomy to central banks, factors influencing the degree of central bank independence, the experience of different countries, as well as objectives and procedures for strengthening central bank accountability and transparency. The paper makes an attempt to measure formal and actual degree of independence of the National Bank of Ukraine, to highlight the main problems undermining and effective independence, accountability and transparency of the Bank and, on the basis of conducted analysis, provides recommendations aimed at enhancing policy in the direction

Методологічні основи дослідження стану соціоекологоекономічної безпеки

У монографії відображені методологічні основи дослідження стану соціоекологоекономічної безпеки об’єктів мікро-, мезо-, макрорівня. Удосконалено методику оцінки соціальної, економічної, екологічної безпеки та соціоекологоекономічної безпеки об’єктів мікро-, мезо-, макрорівня. Набули подальшого розвитку методологічні підходи до дослідження загального стану та визначення рівня соціоекологоекономічної безпеки населення, підприємства, регіону, держави.Дослідження розраховане на науковців, керівників та фахівців підприємств, установ, організацій, представників державних органів управління, викладачів, студентів, а також кола читачів, які цікавляться проблемами забезпечення соціоекологоекономічної безпеки об’єктів мікро-, мезо-, макрорівня

Trust in Commercial Courts and Its Effect on the Performance of Ukrainian SMEs

A set of data from a survey of 285 small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises from the three regions of Ukraine with the highest concentration of SMEs is used to study the determinants of trust in the contract-enforcing powers of commercial courts and its impact on the performance of firms. It is found that trust in courts has a significantly positive impact on the performance as measured by growth in sales and labor productivity. Several determinants of trust in courts are identified: entrepreneurs\u27 experience of direct administrative corruption in the form of monetary bribes, informal relations between businessmen and public officials based on mutual trust, and perceptions of the general business environment. There is, moreover, a significant learning effect: Businessmen with positive experience with commercial courts are more trustful than their inexperienced fellow managers. When testing for direct effects of corruption, informal relations, quality of business environment and past experience with courts on performance no significant quantitative relationships are detectable. This is evidence in favor of the basic hypothesis that these institutional factors influence the performance of SMEs indirectly via their impact on the entrepreneurs\u27 belief in the ability of the legal system to protect their property rights

Vertrauen in die Gerichtsbarkeit und Unternehmenserfolg in einer Transformationswirtschaft

The number of publications in the area of Cutting and Packing (C & P) has increased considerably over the last two decades. The typology of C & P problems introduced by Dyckhoff (1990) initially provided an excellent instrument for the organisation and categorisation of existing and new literature. However, over the years also some deficiencies of this typology became evident, which created problems in dealing with recent developments and prevented it from being accepted more generally. In this paper, the authors present an improved typology, which is partially based on Dyckhoff\u27s original ideas, but introduces new categorisation criteria, which define problem categories different from those of Dyckhoff. Furthermore, a new, consistent system of names is suggested for these problem categories. Finally, the practicability of the new scheme is demonstrated by using it as a basis for a categorisation of the C & P literature from the years between 1995 and 2004

Ownership Structure, Corporate Governance and Enterprise Performance

The paper examines empirically the effect of ownership structure on corporate governance and performance of privatized enterprises in transition. The data are taken from a survey conducted in 2001 on 202 medium-sized and large firms in Ukraine for the period 1998 - 2000. The ownership structure is measured by the percentage of shares held by each type of owner (state, managers, worker, Ukrainian concentrated outsiders, foreign concentrated owners, stake-holding shareholders), performance is measured by sales per employee. Regression analysis is used to test the hypothesis that concentrated outside ownership influences performance positively and to detect non-linear effects of ownership variables on performance. In contrast with important previous studies on enterprise restructuring in Ukraine (e. g., Estrin and Rosevier, European Economic Rev. 43, 1999) we find significant ownership effects on performance. Insider ownership (being a special case of stakeholding ownership) is found to have a significantly non-linear effect on performance - positive within a lower range, but negative from a threshold close to majority ownership onwards. Ukrainian outside owners in general do not have a significant effect on performance, stakeholding ownership by customers, however, affect sales prices and performance negatively. The most robust results are obtained for the effects of concentrated foreign ownership, both for levels of the respective variables in each year and for changes from on year to the other. The impact of foreign ownership on performance is significantly non-linear: Its effect is positive only up to a level that falls short of majority ownership. We conclude that this non-linearity is due to an institutional environment still adverse to foreign direct investment