Convergence in Institutions and Market Outcomes : Cross-country and Time-series Evidence from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Surveys in Transition Economies

Mitra, Pradeep ; Muravyev, Alexander ; Schaffer, Mark E.

关键词: ACCOUNTING;    ACCOUNTING STANDARDS;    ADVANCED COUNTRIES;    BANK BORROWING;    BANK FINANCING;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-4819
RP-ID  :  WPS4819

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper uses firm-level data from theBusiness Environment and Enterprise Performance Surveys tostudy the process of convergence of transition countrieswith developed market economies. The study focuses oncompetition and market structure, finance and the structureof lending to firms, and how firms respond to the economicenvironment by restructuring. The authors find substantialevidence of convergence in a number of dimensions. Thepattern of growth at the country, sector, and firm levelsshows rapid growth of the new private sector and of themicro and small-firm sectors, with the size distribution offirms moving toward the pattern observed in the surveys ofdeveloped market economies. In finance, increasing relianceon retained earnings in transition countries reflects amaturation of the sector as new firms come to rely less oninformal and family sources of finance. The authors findevidence of an inverse-U pattern, with the peak ofrestructuring activity taking place in 2002, the middle ofthe period analyzed. Throughout, the regional patternssuggest greater convergence in the transition countries thatjoined the European Union in 2004 than in the other,lower-income transition economies.