Showing papers by "National Research University – Higher School of Economics published in 2005"

Wage Differentials Between the Public and the Private Sectors in India

Abstract: This study uses 1993-94 and 1999-2000 India Employment and Unemployment surveys to investigate wage differentials between the public and private sectors as well as workers' decisions to join a particular sector. To obtain robust estimates of the wage differential, we apply three econometric techniques each relying on a different set of assumptions about the process of job selection. All three methods show that differences in wages between public sector workers and workers in the formal-private and informal-casual sectors are positive and high. Estimates show that, on average, the public sector premium ranges between 62% and 102% over the private-formal sector, and between 164% and 259% over the informal-casual sector, depending on the choice of methodology. Our review of wage differentials (estimated using similar methodologies) across the world shows that India has one of the largest differentials between wages of public workers and workers in the formal private sector. The wage differentials in India tend to be higher in rural as compared to urban areas, and are higher among women than among men. The wage differential also tends to be higher for low-skilled workers. There is considerable evidence of an increase in the wage differential between 1993-1994 and 1999-2000.

Is It Is or Is It Ain't My Obligation? Regional Debt in a Fiscal Federation

Abstract: This paper studies the repayment of regional debt in a multiregion economy with a central authority: Who pays the obligation issued by a region? With commitment, a central government will use its taxation power to smooth distortionary taxes across regions Absent commitment, the central government may be induced to bail out the regional government in order to smooth consumption and distortionary taxes across the regions We characterize the conditions under which bailouts occur and their welfare implications The gains to creating a federation are higher when the (government spending) shocks across regions are negatively correlated and volatile We use these insights to comment on actual fiscal relations in three quite different federations: the US, the European Union and Argentina

Improving child nutrition outcomes in India : can the integrated child development services be more effective?

Abstract: Levels of child malnutrition in India fell only slowly during the 1990s, despite significant economic growth and large public spending on the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) program, of which the major component is supplementary feeding for malnourished children. To unravel this puzzle, the authors assess the program's placement and its outcomes using National Family Health Survey data from 1992 and 1998. They find that program placement is clearly regressive across states. The states with the greatest need for the program - the poor northern states with high levels of child malnutrition and nearly half of India's population - have the lowest program coverage and the lowest budgetary allocations from the central government. Program placement within a state is more progressive: poorer and larger villages have a higher probability of having an ICDS center, as do those with other development programs or community associations. The authors also find little evidence of program impact on child nutrition status in villages with ICDS centers.

Is Political Risk Company-Specific? The Market Side of the Yukos Affair *

Abstract: The Yukos affair, a high-profile story of the state-led assault on a private Russian company, provides an excellent opportunity for an inquiry into the nature of company-specific political risks in emerging markets. News associated primarily with law enforcement agencies’ actions against company’s managers, not formally related to the company itself, caused significant negative abnormal returns for Yukos. The results are robust and not driven by a few major events, such as the arrests of Yukos’ top managers and shareholders. Stocks of less transparent private Russian companies have been more sensitive to Yukos-related events, especially employee-related charges by law enforcement agencies. The situation was different for less transparent government-owned companies such as the world-largest natural gas producer Gazprom: they appear to be significantly less sensitive to these events. Actions of regulatory agencies have had predominantly industry-wide impact, whereas law-enforcement agencies’ actions affected shares of large private companies, especially those privatized in the notorious loans-for-shares privatization auctions.

Does sports performance influence revenues and economic results in Spanish football

Abstract: English football began taking steps towards becoming a business earlier than Spanish football did, and academic studies on the football industry to date also focus primarily on football in the UK. The evidence for the relationship between sports performance and revenues appear clear in English football. There is even research about the effects of a club’s wealth on its sports performance, or the effects of a club’s sporting situations on its finances. In this paper, we ana-lyse the relationship between sports performance and the revenues of football clubs as well as the effect of sports performance on the financial results in Spanish professional football. In order to carry out this research we have had to select which variables to analyse and choose the most appropriate methods of measurement. We have designed a system which obtains a variable of sports performance that includes information from every competition in which the foot-ball club participates.

Fear and Greed in Financial Markets: A Clinical Study of Day-Traders

Abstract: We investigate several possible links between psychological factors and trading performance in a sample of 80 anonymous day-traders. Using daily emotional-state surveys over a five-week period as well as personality inventory surveys, we construct measures of personality traits and emotional states for each subject and correlate these measures with daily normalized profits-and-losses records. We find that subjects whose emotional reaction to monetary gains and losses was more intense on both the positive and negative side exhibited significantly worse trading performance. Psychological traits derived from a standardized personality inventory survey do not reveal any specific "trader personality profile", raising the possibility that trading skills may not necessarily be innate, and that different personality types may be able to perform trading functions equally well after proper instruction and practice.

Real cohomology groups of the space of nonsingular curves of degree 5 in $\mathbb {CP}^{2}$

Abstract: Nous considerons une variante de la methode de V. A. Vassiliev du calcul des groupes de cohomologie des espaces d'hypersurfaces projectives complexes non-singulieres. Bien qu'etant moins « canonique » que celle de V. A. Vassiliev, notre construction permet de simplifier les calculs dans certains cas. On l'applique ensuite pour demontrer que le polynome de Poincare de l'espace des polynomes homogenes qui definissent des quintiques non singulieres de CP 2 est egal a (1 + t)(1 + t 3 )(1+ t 5 ).

Innovations in Russian Industries: Conditions for Implementation and Impact on Competitiveness

Abstract: Based on the result of a survey of 1500 Russian industrial companies we not only clarified the intensity of particular innovations but also interconnections between technological and managerial innovations. We also determined the institutional factors that affect the intensity of particular innovations, i.e. presence of foreign ownership, openness of local markets to international competition and inclusion of companies into large corporations to/that foster innovations. At the same time, the rigidity of organizational structures and inertia of local production networks put serious limitation on radical product and technological innovations. The further development of Russian industries will largely depend on organizational flexibility of corporations and on increasing mutual trust within local business networks. Unter Nutzung der Ergebnisse einer Umfrage unter 1500 Industrieunternehmen werden nicht nur die Intensitat von spezifischen Innovationen, sondern auch die Zusammenhange zwischen Technologie- und Managementinnovationen nachgewiesen. Weiterhin wurden auch die institutionellen Faktoren bestimmt, die diese Innovationen beeinflussen wie das Vorhandensein auslandischen Eigentums, die Offnung des Marktes zur internationalen Konkurrenz und die Einbindung von Firmen in grose Unternehmen, um Innovationen voranzutreiben. Gleichzeitig erschweren rigide Organisationsstrukturen und lokale Produktionsnetzwerke radikale Produkt- und Technologieinnovationen immens. Die zukunftige Entwicklung der russischen Industrien wird weitgehend von der organisationellen Flexibilitat der Unternehmen und dem wachsenden gegenseitigenVertrauen innerhalb lokaler Handelsnetzwerke abhangen.

Deterrence, Lawsuits, and Litigation Outcomes Under Court Errors

Abstract: This paper presents a strategic model of liability and litigation under court errors. Our framework allows for endogenous choice of level of care and endogenous likelihood of filing and disputes. We derive sufficient conditions for a unique universally-divine mixed-strategy perfect Bayesian equilibrium under low court errors. In this equilibrium, some defendants choose to be grossly negligent; some cases are filed; and, some lawsuits are dropped, some are resolved out-of-court and some go to trial. We find that court errors in the size of the award, as well as damage caps and split-awards, reduce the likelihood of trial but increase filing and reduce the deterrence effect of punitive damages. We derive conditions under which the adoption of the English rule for allocating legal costs reduces filing

The Killing Game: Reputation and Knowledge in Non-Democratic Succession ∗

Abstract: The winner of a battle for a throne can either execute or spare the loser; if the loser is spared, he contends the throne in the next period. Executing the losing contender gives the winner an additional quiet period, but then his life is at risk if he loses to some future contender who might be, in equilibrium, too frightened to spare him. The trade-off is analyzed within a dynamic complete information game, with, potentially, an infinite number of long-term players. In an equilibrium, decisions to execute predecessors are history-dependent. With a dynastic rule in place, incentives to kill the predecessor are much higher than in non-hereditary dictatorships. The historical part of our analytic narrative contains a detailed analysis of two types of nondemocratic succession: hereditary rule of the Osmanli dynasty in the Ottoman Empire in 1281— 1922, and non-hereditary military dictatorships in Venezuela in 1830—1964.

Cohomology of 3-dimensional color Lie algebras

Abstract: We develop the cohomology theory of color Lie superalgebras due to Scheunert--Zhang in a framework of nonhomogeneous quadratic Koszul algebras. In this approach, the Chevalley--Eilenberg complex of a color Lie algebra becomes a standard Koszul complex for its universal enveloping algebra. As an application, we calculate cohomologies with trivial coefficients of 3-dimensional color Lie superalgebras.

Brauer-Siegel and Tsfasman-Vladut theorems for almost normal extensions of global fields

Abstract: The classical Brauer-Siegel theorem states that if k runs through the sequence of normal extensions of Q such that nk/ log |Dk| → 0, then log hkRk/ log √ |Dk| → 1. First, in this paper we obtain the generalization of the Brauer-Siegel and Tsfasman-Vladuţ theorems to the case of almost normal number fields. Second, using the approach of Hajir and Maire, we construct several new examples concerning the Brauer-Siegel ratio in asymptotically good towers of number fields. These examples give smaller values of the Brauer-Siegel ratio than those given by Tsfasman and Vladuţ.

Институты: От заимствования к выращиванию: Опыт российских реформ и возможное культивирование институциональных изменений

Abstract: Estimating the outcomes of the Russian reforms, the authors suggest the idea of raising of institutions. This insight opposes to the concept of radical institutional changes and the concept of strong institutional inertia. An approach to institutional reforms which is confined to the adoption of "good laws" is criticized. It is pointed out that special continuous efforts should be made for achieving embeddedness of new institutions, diminishing institutional gaps, providing institutional complementarity, and building up a balance of social forces to ensure the success of institutional reforms.

What Determines the Extent of Fiscal Decentralization? The Russian Paradox

Abstract: The paper provides an empirical analysis of the determinants of fiscal decentralization within Russian regions in 1994-2001. The conventional view that more decentralized governments are found in regions and countries with higher income, higher ethnolinguistic fractionalization, and higher levels of democracy is not supported by the data. This motivates a more refined analysis of the determinants of decentralization that points to the link between decentralization and the structure of regional government revenue: access to windfall revenues leads to a more centralized governance structure. The degree of decentralization also depends positively on the level of urbanization and regional size and negatively on income and general regional development indicators such as the education level.

Split-Awards and Disputes: An Experimental Study of a Strategic Model of Litigation

Abstract: This paper studies experimentally the impact of the split-award statute, where the state takes a share of the plaintiff's punitive damage award, on litigation outcomes. Our findings indicate that dispute rates are significantly lower when bargaining is performed under the split-award institution. Defendants' litigation losses and plaintiffs' net compensation are significantly reduced by the split-award statute.

A Banach algebra of functions of several variables of finite total variation and Lipschitzian superposition operators. II

Abstract: It is shown that the space of functions of n real variables with finite total variation in the sense of Vitali, Hardy and Krause, defined on a rectangle I a b ⊂ R n , is a Banach algebra under the pointwise operations and Hildebrandt–Leonov's norm. This result generalizes the classical case of functions of bounded Jordan variation on an interval I a b = [ a , b ] for n = 1 and a previous result of the author in [Monatsh. Math. 137(2) (2002) 99–114] for n = 2 .

Faculty Development in Russian Higher Education

Abstract: This work summarizes results from three studies of the current state of higher education faculty development in Russia. Positive aspects include its support for societal change, content focus, regularity, systematic nature, governmental support, established tradition, encouragement of graduate work, career‐long continuity, institutional control, and development of lecture skills. Problematic aspects currently include an over‐emphasis on memorization, severe under‐funding, uneven quality of faculty development programs, and lack of attention to student involvement, faculty research, and ethics. International exchange programs appear important for Russian faculty development, but language facility is a main factor limiting participation in exchanges, study abroad, and Internet usage. Recommendations are made for further research and for the policies of international non‐profit organizations, government agencies, and professional faculty development organizations. Ce travail fait la synthese des resultats de...

Managers Discretionary Behaviour, Earnings Management and Internal Mechanisms of Corporate Governance: Empirical Evidence from Chilean Firms

Abstract: We analyze the ability of the capital structure and the ownership structure as mechanisms of control of the managers of the firms and to reduce their accounting discretionary power for a sample of Chilean firms. Using earnings management and abnormal accruals as indicators of discretionary behavior, our results show that both debt and ownership concentration reduce the managers' discretionary behavior, so we corroborate the outstanding role both mechanisms play in a country with low protection of investors' rights. At the same time, we find that earnings management is fostered by institutional investor ownership.

On the canonical embeddings of certain homogeneous spaces

Abstract: We study equivariant affine embeddings of homoge- neous spaces and their equivariant automorphisms. An example of a quasiaffine, but not affine, homogeneous space with finitely ma ny equivariant automorphisms is presented. We prove the solvability of any connected group of equivariant automorphisms for an affine embedding with a fixed point and finitely many orbits. This is ap- plied to studying the orbital decomposition for algebraic monoids and canonical embeddings of quasiaffine homogeneous spaces,i.e., those affine embeddings associated with the coordinate algebras of homogeneous spaces, provided the latter algebras are finitely gen- erated. We pay special attention to the canonical embeddings of quotient spaces of reductive groups modulo the unipotent radicals of parabolic subgroups. For these varieties, we describe the orbital decomposition, compute the modality of the group action, and find out which of them are smooth. We also describe minimal ambient modules for these canonical embeddings provided that the acting group is simply connected.

Competitive Changes on Russian Markets: The Example of Retail Chains

Abstract: (2004). Competitive Changes on Russian Markets :The Example of Retail Chains. Problems of Economic Transition: Vol. 47, No. 6, pp. 66-93.

A model to explain support in Spanish football

Abstract: This paper analyses the factors which affect support and influence revenues in Spanish professional football clubs. It focuses on the relationships between attendance and different sets of variables: those that relate to the socio-economic environment, the quality of product (results) and the quality of means of production (team squad). The main conclusions are, firstly, that the quality of the squad influences attendance through its performance on the pitch, secondly, that the level of attendance is explained by the population of the province in which the club is based, and by both the current and historical performances of the team, and thirdly, that the club’s sporting revenues can be explained by their attendances. Given the importance of support, and in particular attendance, to the revenues of football clubs, the conceptual model developed in this article might contribute significantly to the estimation of cash-flows in football clubs.

Abstract Superposition Operators on Mappings of Bounded Variation of Two Real Variables. I

Abstract: We define and study the metric semigroup BV2(I ; M) of mappings of two real variables of bounded total variation in the Vitali-Hardy-Krause sense on a rectangle I with values in a metric semigroup or abstract convex cone M. We give a complete description for the Lipschitzian Nemytskii superposition operators acting from BV2(I ; M) to a similar semigroup BV2(I ; N) and, as a consequence, characterize set-valued superposition operators. We establish a connection between the mappings in BV2(I ; M) with the mappings of bounded iterated variation and study the iterated superposition operators on the mappings of bounded iterated variation. The results of this article develop and generalize the recent results by Matkowski and Mis (1984), Zawadzka (1990), and the author (2002, 2003) to the case of (set-valued) superposition operators on the mappings of two real variables.

Division theorems for the rational cohomology of certain discriminant complements

Abstract: The main purpose of this paper is to show that the mixed Hodge polynomial of the ``space of equations'' for smooth complete intersections of given multidegree in $\mathbb{C} P^n$ is divisible by the mixed Hodge polynomial of the group $\mathrm{GL}_{n+1}(\mathbb{C})$, the quotient being the mixed Hodge polynomial of the corresponding quotient space As a by-product of the method used in the proof, we obtain expressions divisible by the order the automorphism group of any smooth projective hypersurface of given dimension and degree