Bank Performance in Transition Economies

This paper examines the performance of 515 banks in 16 transition economies for the years 1994 – 99 based on their public financial accounts. We first examine lending behaviour and probability distribution of bank profitability to determine whether these banks exhibit behaviour and performance associated with excessive risk-taking. While we do not find evidence of excessive risk taking on average where there is significant progress in banking and related enterprise reforms, there may be a minority of poorly capitalised banks that do take excessive risks, particularly where progress in reform is less advanced. The paper then estimates cost and revenue functions based on a model of banks as multi-product firms. The results indicate that banks' performance differs significantly depending on the reform environment, as well as the competitive conditions, in which they operate. Banks with high market shares have higher costs and achieve lower margins on their loan and deposit activities. Where there has been significant progress in banking and related enterprise reforms, banks are making comfortable margins on loans and appear to be offering competitive margins on deposits, though they are still achieving overall negative returns on equity. By contrast, when substantial reforms have not been undertaken, banks have been sustaining high negative returns on loans, largely at the expense of depositors; in effect they have been able to appropriate much of the tax that inflation levies on nominal deposits, and have been using this revenue to prop up their weak loan portfolios. Overall interest margins are declining over time but are substantially higher in low reform environments. The results indicate that an appropriate policy and regulatory framework may be a necessary condition for significant progress to be made.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39890/3/wp505.pd

Bank Performance in Transition Economies

This paper examines the performance of 515 banks in 16 transition economies for the years 1994 – 99 based on their public financial accounts. We first examine lending behaviour and probability distribution of bank profitability to determine whether these banks exhibit behaviour and performance associated with excessive risk-taking. While we do not find evidence of excessive risk taking on average where there is significant progress in banking and related enterprise reforms, there may be a minority of poorly capitalised banks that do take excessive risks, particularly where progress in reform is less advanced. The paper then estimates cost and revenue functions based on a model of banks as multi-product firms. The results indicate that banks' performance differs significantly depending on the reform environment, as well as the competitive conditions, in which they operate. Banks with high market shares have higher costs and achieve lower margins on their loan and deposit activities. Where there has been significant progress in banking and related enterprise reforms, banks are making comfortable margins on loans and appear to be offering competitive margins on deposits, though they are still achieving overall negative returns on equity. By contrast, when substantial reforms have not been undertaken, banks have been sustaining high negative returns on loans, largely at the expense of depositors; in effect they have been able to appropriate much of the tax that inflation levies on nominal deposits, and have been using this revenue to prop up their weak loan portfolios. Overall interest margins are declining over time but are substantially higher in low reform environments. The results indicate that an appropriate policy and regulatory framework may be a necessary condition for significant progress to be made.banking, cost functions, revenue functions, transition

Competition and Enterprise Performance in Transition Economies: Evidence from a Cross-country Survey

This paper uses a survey of 3,300 firms in 25 transition countries to shed light on the factors that influence restructuring by firms and their subsequent performance as measured by growth in sales and in sales per employee over a three-year period. We begin by surveying what a decade of transition has taught us about the factors that determine how firms respond to the new market environment. We go on to analyse the impact on performance of ownership, soft budget constraints, the general business environment and a range of measures of the intensity of competition as perceived by a firm. We find that competition has an important and non-monotonic effect on the growth of sales and of labour productivity: some degree of perceived market power is associated with higher sales growth, but competitive pressure is also important. Similar competition effects are found upon firms' decisions to develop and improve their products, but market power has an unambiguously negative impact on purely defensive (cost-reducing) restructuring activity. New firms have grown relatively fast, but among old firms ownership per se has no significant relationship to performance (though state-owned firms have engaged in significantly less development of new products). Soft budget constraints have a broadly negative and the business environment a broadly positive impact on restructuring and performance.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39760/3/wp376.pd

Competition and Enterprise Performance in Transition Economies: Evidence from a Cross-country Survey

This paper uses a survey of 3,300 firms in 25 transition countries to shed light on the factors that influence restructuring by firms and their subsequent performance as measured by growth in sales and in sales per employee over a three-year period. We begin by surveying what a decade of transition has taught us about the factors that determine how firms respond to the new market environment. We go on to analyse the impact on performance of ownership, soft budget constraints, the general business environment and a range of measures of the intensity of competition as perceived by a firm. We find that competition has an important and non-monotonic effect on the growth of sales and of labour productivity: some degree of perceived market power is associated with higher sales growth, but competitive pressure is also important. Similar competition effects are found upon firms' decisions to develop and improve their products, but market power has an unambiguously negative impact on purely defensive (cost-reducing) restructuring activity. New firms have grown relatively fast, but among old firms ownership per se has no significant relationship to performance (though state-owned firms have engaged in significantly less development of new products). Soft budget constraints have a broadly negative and the business environment a broadly positive impact on restructuring and performance.competition.restructuring,privatization,soft budget constraints, business environment

Accelerated Epigenetic Aging in Older Adults With HIV Disease: Associations With Serostatus, HIV Clinical Factors, and Health Literacy

The prevalence of older persons with HIV (PWH) disease has increased considerably in the last 20 years, but our understanding of biological factors of aging and their clinical correlates among PWH remains limited. Study participants were 149 persons aged 50 and older, including 107 PWH and 42 seronegatives. All participants completed a blood draw, research medical evaluation, structured psychiatric interview, neurocognitive assessment, questionnaires, and measures of health literacy. Four epigenetic clocks were generated from stored blood samples using standardized laboratory methods. In regression models adjusting for sex and smoking status, PWH had significantly higher epigenetic aging acceleration values than seronegatives on all four indicators. Within the PWH sample, higher levels of epigenetic aging acceleration were moderately associated with lower current CD4 count, AIDS diagnoses, higher scores on the Veterans Aging Cohort Study Index, and lower telomere values. Higher epigenetic aging acceleration indices were also associated with lower health literacy among PWH. PWH experience accelerated aging as measured by a series of epigenetic clocks, which may be linked to immune compromise and risk of all-cause mortality. Health literacy may be a modifiable target for mitigating the risk of accelerated aging among older PWH