Financial Constraints and the Cyclicality of R&D Investment: Evidence from Slovenia

This paper uses firm level data to show how R&D investment responds to shocks in sales growth in credit constrained firms. A credit constrained firm has to rely on its cash flow and borrowing capacity to survive its short-run liquidity shock when hit by a negative shock. This reduces the possibility for further borrowing in order to invest in non-tangible long tfirm R&D, hence a negative shock should hit R&D investments more in firms that are more credit constrained. We find that in financially constrained firms sales growth is positively associated with R&D investment, suggesting procyclical behavior of R&D investment in credit constrained firms. In contrast, we find that in firms with no financial constraints R&D investment is negatively correlated with sales growth, suggesting countercyclical behavior of R&D, consistent with the Schumpeterian idea of restructuring. Furthfirmore, we find that the firm level response in R&D investment to sales growth is stronger in firms that are more financially dependent, such as firms that are no part of a multinational, firms not receiving subsidies or firms with less collateral

“Influence of Education and Training Systems on Participation of Young People in Labour Market of CEE Economies. A Comparison of Poland and Slovenia”

(also available as CERGE-EI Conference, Prague; e in II Conference on: An enterprise odyssey: building competitive advantages [2004, Compact disc edition], Graduate School of Economics and Business, Zagreb

The Labour Market in Macedonia: A Labour Demand Analysis

This paper examines the labour market in Macedonia, a country with the highest unemployment rate in Europe. I describe labour market institutions and policies during the transition. I also examine job creation and job destruction using firm-level data and I estimate short-term and long-term elasticities of the labour demand. The analysis shows that there are regulatory barriers to the labour market flexibility. I can also conclude that the privatization of socially owned enterprises has failed to promote job creation. Nevertheless, labour market problems seem to stem from factors other than substantial sluggishness of firms in adjusting employment to variations in wages. Copyright 2008 The Author. Journal compilation CEIS, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2008.