期刊名称：CERT Discussion Paper / Center for Economic Reform and Transformation
出版年度：2008
卷号：2008
出版社：Edinburgh
摘要：This paper uses firm-level data from the Business
Environment and Enterprise Performance Surveys (BEEPS) to study the process of
convergence of transition countries with developed market economies. The primary
focus of the study is on competition and market structure, finance and the
structure of lending to firms, and how firms respond to the economic environment
by restructuring; we are able to do this because the BEEPS cover thousands of
firms from virtually all transition countries over a long time period (1996-99
through 2002-05), as well firms from developed market economies, thus providing
a set of natural benchmarks. We find substantial evidence of convergence of
transition countries with developed market economies in a number of dimensions.
The pattern of growth at the country, sectoral and firm level shows rapid growth
of the new private sector and of the micro- and small-firm sectors, with the
size distribution of firms moving towards the pattern observed in the BEEPS
surveys of developed market economies. Our interpretation of the evidence on
competition is that there is an initial move by firms into niches to exploit
local market power, and later in transition entry and domestic competitive
pressure increases. In finance, the increasing reliance on retained earnings in
transition countries reflects a maturation of the sector as new firms come to
rely less on informal and family sources of finance. The scale of restructuring
and innovation activity is as high or higher in transition economies as in
developed market economies. Interestingly, we find evidence of an inverse-U
shape pattern, with the peak of restructuring activity taking place in 2002, the
middle of the period analyzed. Throughout, the regional patterns suggest greater
convergence in the transition countries that joined the European Union in 2004
than in the other, lower-income transition economies
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