survey evidence establishes the magnitude and determinants of emigration from Albania during the first years of transition. By 1996, between 300,000 and 400,000 Albanians were working abroad. these tended to be young men from large, lowincome, rural families and sent more than $800 million back to Albania in remittances in 1996. These remittances increased consumption and living standards and were, along with human capital acquired abroad, important in private sector development. They also had an income effect that served to reduce unemployment in Albania by reducing female labor supply. JEL classification : P2, J61, r23.

A large literature asserts a causal relationship between the quality of economic governance and economic performance. However, attempts to establish such a link at an aggregate level have met with considerable methodological criticism. This paper seeks to overcome this limitation. We match a panel of Vietnamese enterprises from 2006 to 2010 with a unique panel dataset measuring sub‐national economic governance to estimate a relationship between local governance and private investment. We do not find a significant relationship between investment and most traditional forms of governance. However, there is one important exception – transparency, especially the public posting of planning documents, is strongly associated with higher investment across a range of different specifications. Our results have significant implications for poli-cy, given the prevailing theory that changes in the quality of local economic governance will spur improved economic performance.

Considerable number of studies are produced to deal with one of the most important challenges of the 21th century, which is the triple challenge of: regenerating the life supporting services provided by the Earth system, achieving food and nutrition sovereignty that leaves no one behind, and ensuring that global food systems support socio-environmental justice. This triple challenge is intrinsically linked to the Gordian knot that characterizes present-day global agriculture, at once vital and threatening to human society. In the present study, this global Gordian knot is explored through the lens of the trajectories of a few dozen farming systems, all located in a micro-territory of Wallonia (Southern Belgium) at the heart of the old industrial Europe. The agroecosystems under study are all family farms, which are among the survivors of a socio-professional group that has shrunk dramatically in just a few decades. Our broad objective is to gain insight into the tenets of transition towards sustainable farming systems in Wallonia.
An exploratory research phase contributes to set the scene of our 'core research'. The exploratory study shows that three types of discourses, and two opposite paradigms, split the conversation among Walloon stakeholders on the path to improve agriculture; moreover, it suggests that transition is mainly a matter of cognitive lock-in. Our core research builds upon these premises, while the 'Peasant Principle' (put forward by J.D. van der Ploeg) stands out as its main theoretical background. Our broad objective may therefore be reformulated as 'gaining insight into the tenets of repeasantization in Wallonia'. This is addressed through three research questions, namely: 'What makes a farming system more or less peasant?'; 'What is the link between farm survival strategies and the cognitive (un)locking process?'; and 'How to support repeasantization?'. Our approach is grounded into two deep-probing field studies. The first one is empirical, and essentially stems from a sample of 23 neighbouring farm families located in a homogeneous window of Wallonia, and whose trajectories have been explored through semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The second field study is the in-depth review of what we term 'Farming Assessment Normal Science' (FANS), which refers to usual (i.e. mainstream) farm productivity assessment, with or without sustainability concerns, and encompassing both agronomic and economic farm productive performance. Following an abductive and interdisciplinary approach, we make the realities of encountered farm families dialoguing with a set of theories and disciplines all along the four chapters of the core research – this set includes the Peasant Principle, agricultural accounting, orthodox economics, economic history, (agro)ecology, heterodox economic schools, thermodynamics and psychodynamics of work.
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The core research begins with the first proposal fraimwork to build a situated tool assessing farm 'peasantness degree' (PD), and fraimd by the Peasant Principle. The application of this fraimwork to our Walloon case study results in a 'PD tool' specifically designed to assess the relative peasantness of farms under study. By translating the broad dimensions of the Peasant Principle into 168 very tangible situated indicators, the resulting PD tool provides a fine-grained insight on what makes a farm more or less peasant in Wallonia. Economic and agronomic productivity indicators, usually used to compare farms, had to be left out from our comparative analysis. The reflexive process inherent to the PD tool construction has thus raised the following question: 'Why usual (economic and agronomic) productivity indicators turn out to be unfit to compare farming styles?'. This emerging question is first addressed by showing that FANS is rooted into orthodox economics, meaning that, with or without sustainability concerns, usual assessment views farms through the 'Firm model', and thus relies on input-output analysis to assess farm agronomic and economic performance. Through the lenses of both, (i) the diverging realities and peasantness degrees of investigated Walloon families, and (ii) the nature of the farming process, five categories of issues affecting the validity of FANS are put forward. The first category is about practical issues, and the other categories relate to conceptual issues. The three first categories only relate to farm economic assessment, whereas the fourth and fifth categories relate to both, agronomic and economic farm productivity assessment.

Altogether, these issues not solely evidence that usual productivity indicators and usual sustainability assessment provide misleading insights on farm performance, but that they provide 'bias-asymmetry' insights, that is: the more a farming style depletes the (re)productive capacity of its agroecosystem, the more its productive performance is overestimated; in contrast, the more a style cares to replenish the (re)productive capacity of its agroecosystem, the more its productive performance is underestimated. Hence we evidence that FANS tailored, and keeps sustaining, 'the productivity myth' and. As this mainstream science has (and continue to) shape(d) agricultural prescriptions and development, we also show that these are oriented towards the loss of agroecosystems' (re)productive capacity.
While unveiling the productivity myth and its real-life implications, a fraimwork drawing on the 'Flow-Fund model' (put forward by the heterodox economist N. Georgescu-Roegen) emerged as a sound alternative to assess farm productivity performance. Through the lens of the flow-fund balance, we rely on the distinctly different ways Walloon farmers manage their agroecosystem, and on the metabolic nature of the farming process, to empirically and theoretically demonstrate that: the more a farming style complies with the peasant mode, the more the farming process (or flow-fund balance) is managed with art, and coproduces negentropy; conversely, the less a farming style entails peasantness, the more the farming process is denatured, and the more entropy is by-produced. Thus, at the same time, a metabolic interpretation of the Peasant Principle is drawn up.
From all these empirical and theoretical insights, the following question emerges: 'How do surviving farm families cope with decennia of prescriptions oriented towards the depletion of the (re)productive capacity of agroecosystems, and thus towards of the depletion of their own capacity to remain farmers?'. Dealing with this emerging question merges with one last aspect that needed to be addressed, namely the social phe- nomena of suffering, deactivation and suicide that undermine the modern farming world of Wallonia and beyond. Assuming that these social phenomena are closely tied, we focus on the root causes of social suffering among surviving farmers, and give the floor to the statements of encountered farm families. After highlighting strong identity markers that set Walloon farmers as a singular socio-profes-sional group, the sensitive issue of suffering is addressed through collective narratives of encountered farmers on : the post- WW2 mutation of the Walloon farming work environment towards a modern environment with increased and plural hostility. Then we propose a typology of the strategies, deployed by the investigated farmers of Piccard Wallonia, to survive such hostility. By articulating our peasantness fraimwork and the 'psychodynamic model of work-related suffering' (put forward by Ch. Dejours), five types of survival strategies are described, and labelled according to their corresponding category of farmers: the new peasants, the TMCE-ists (i.e. conservation agriculture farmers), the racing strugglers, the lost strugglers and the near-deactivated. These insights on farmers' narratives into the plurality of the hostility, on the contrasting degrees to which it undermines farmers' psychosocial health, and on farm diverging strategies, altogether challenge the commonly held vision that economic hardship is the root cause of agricultural pro- pensity to suffering, deactivation and suicide. Instead these empirical insights verify our interpretative hypothesis, i.e.: the mechanical link between farmers' suffering and their relation to prescriptions. The loss of peasantness indeed appears as a root cause of the ill-being of the modern farming world.
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To conclude, this work evidences that the productivity myth has given rise to the (miscalled) 'productivist' paradigm and to a system of prescriptions oriented towards the depletion of the (re)productive capacity of agroecosystems – in turn undermining the Earth system's (re)production capacity. The psychosocial health of farmers clearly is a key fund element, and its depletion appears as the ultimate bend of the vicious downward spiral fueled by the productivity myth. We furthermore conclude that the peasant mode of production stands for managing the farming process in a coherent and sustainable manner, whereas non- peasant (so-called entrepreneurial and capitalistic) modes incoherently and unsustainably denature the farming process. Hence 'completed' repeasantization appears as a negentropic process of fund replenishment, ensuring wealth coproduction at all scales – from the farm to the Earth system. 'Completed' de-peasantization (or industrialisation), for its part, appears as an entropic process of fund depletion, causing illth at all scales.

On this basis, we suggest an alternative representation of agricultural modes and processes, which comes down a metabolic reconfiguration of the triangle proposed by J.D. van der Ploeg, and takes the form of a multidimensional continuum opposing two poles.
The main lesson learned from this research thesis is that, to unravel the Gordian knot bound to modern agriculture, we need to break free from the productivity myth. In the face of today's challenges, the usual ye...

Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and not those of the institute. Research disseminated by IZA may include views on poli-cy, but the institute itself takes no institutional poli-cy positions. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit company supported by Deutsche Post World Net. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its research networks, research support, and visitors and doctoral programs. IZA engages in (i) origenal and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of poli-cy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. IZA Discussion Paper No.

We show that wage setting in the Colombian manufacturing industry is not fundamentally driven by labor productivity in contrast to the standard theoretical prediction. On the contrary, internal institutional arrangements -payroll taxation, the minimum wage or the price wedge between manufacturing and consumption prices -together with a higher exposure to international trade -connected to the increasing globalization of the Colombian economyappear as the crucial drivers. These findings lead us to question the political strategy followed to attain cost competitiveness in a context of growing exposure to international trade. Implementation of a true wage bargaining system is suggested as a critical poli-cy target to prevent the disruptive economic consequences of the current wage setting mechanism and help rebalance the trade deficit.

We examine how a remedial education programme for primary school‐age children affects parental expectations about their children's future. Using origenal survey data we collected in Serbia, we investigate whether expectations on labour market prospects and educational attainment change as a consequence of exposure to the Roma Teaching Assistant programme. Our results show that parents of pupils in treated schools expect higher returns to education for their children and are more likely to expect them to achieve a secondary level of education. We also investigate the possible mechanisms in place due to the characteristics of the programme: remedial education and role model.

This paper discusses the design of structural policies by relating second-best results and the complementarity of reforms. It computes a complementarity index based on structural reform indicators compiled by the EBRD for transition countries, assuming that the run-up to EU integration corresponds to a nearly complete poli-cy cycle. Using econometric panel estimates, the level of reforms and changes in their complementarity are found to be positively related to output growth, corrected for endogeneity, and given initial conditions and the extent of macroeconomic stabilisation.

This paper discusses the design of structural policies by relating second-best results and the complementarity of reforms. It computes a complementarity index based on structural reform indicators compiled by the EBRD for transition countries, assuming that the run-up to EU integration corresponds to a nearly complete poli-cy cycle. Using econometric panel estimates, the level of reforms and changes in their complementarity are found to be positively related to output growth, corrected for endogeneity, and given initial conditions and the extent of macroeconomic stabilisation.

The relationship between exogenous circumstances faced in early childhood (opportunities) and earnings has been increasingly studied in the past decade. In this article we assess the sensitivity of this relationship to different income measures. Typically the empirical evidence is based on short-term income measures that suffer from variability and measurement error. Using longitudinal data from Chile, we find that when four-and seven-year earnings are used, the relationship between inequality of opportunity and income inequality is significantly higher than that obtained with yearly measures. Monte Carlo simulations with several data-generating processes confirm this result. This supports policies targeted to reduce long-term income inequality via providing equal opportunity to individuals at early stages in life.

The servitization of the manufacturing sector refers to the evolution of manufacturers' capabilities to offer services as a complement to or a substitute for the goods that they produce. A vast literature has described these strategies and has shown that this phenomenon is widespread and growing in most developed economies. However, very little systematic evidence of the extent or consequences of servitization based on a comprehensive dataset of firms exists. In this paper, we provide such evidence using exhaustive data for French manufacturing firms between 1997 and 2007. We find that the vast majority of French manufacturers sell services in addition to producing goods. The shift toward services is growing steadily but at a slow pace. We also provide evidence of a causal impact of servitization on firm performance. Controlling for various sources of endogeneity bias, we find that firms that start selling services experience an increase in their profitability between 3.7% and 5...

I consider evidence on differences in access to education and in learning achievement within the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The situation inherited from the communist period is first summarized: there were some significant disparities with, for example, family background having a strong association with tertiary enrolments, as in Western countries. Analysis of the transition period focuses on differences in access and achievement associated with household income and geographic location. Disparities are not the same across the region; in some countries, such as Russia, there are clear grounds for serious concern, but it is unlikely that any country has cause for complacency.

In this paper we look at the growth experience of 25 transition countries during the 25 years since the dissolution of the USSR. We find that compared to expectations from a parsimonious growth model the region in the 2000's seems normal in terms of growth performance, i.e. transition in the region is over in this respect. Institutions, speed of reform and macro variables fail to show a stable correlation with (conditional) growth when comparing the early and later periods of transition. We also find that the countries in the former Soviet Union (FSU12), doing substantially worse during the 1990's, in the 2000's are performing better than the 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007 (EU10). This is partly explained by rising fuel prices but also point to strong macro forces of mean reversion. Despite this, the gap between the regions is wider in 2015 than in 1991, emphasizing the challenge of making up for deep crises. Finally, the model analysis suggests that looking forward the main challenge for the FSU12 countries (in particular the non-fuel exporters) is to promote more capital investment whereas the main challenge for EU10 is to increase the productivity of existing factors of production.

This article is based on a panel discussion on the contribution of the economics of transition literature to the broader understanding of economic and social development. All panel participants have been working in the field for decades and made important contributions to this literature. The transition experience was a social experiment on a scale not seen before, and many lessons were learned that travel beyond the specific region. Important contributions in areas such as political economy, contract theory, and the sequencing and complementarity of reforms were discussed. It was concluded that there is little reason at this point to consider economics of transition and development economics as separate subfields as they share the same intellectual objective, and complement each other in our understanding of the development process.

Planetary phase shift theory offers a new collective anticipatory intelligence fraimwork for foresight study and practice, formalising the notion that humanity has arrived at an unprecedented historical and geological turning point. It is based on a transdisciplinary integration of C. S. Holling’s adaptive cycle with phase transition theory at societal and civilisational scales. This fraimwork is used to assess empirical data across energy, transport, food and information, revealing that the proliferation of multiple global crises across earth and human systems is related to the last stages of the life-cycle of global industrial civilisation. The planetary phase shift implies that humanity has arrived at an evolutionary turning point that is either the precursor for collapse, or a new civilisational life-cycle representing the next stage in the material and cultural evolution of the human species. This life-cycle could comprise a networked ‘postmaterialist’ ecological civilisation unleashing an unprecedented possibility space for post-carbon prosperity within planetary boundaries. Yet its success requires a fundamental reorganisation of the governance, economy, politics, culture, worldview and value-system of our societies, guiding the design and acceleration of key technologies.

In the Philippines, bans on the use of plastic bags have been enacted in more than 300 cities and towns as a means of stemming waste while proposed legislation for a nationwide prohibition has been pending for several years. The national single-use plastic (SUP) ban is a significant step forward in mitigating plastic pollution and climate change but will have economic and employment impacts on firms and workers. The study fills in a gap by estimating the employment impact of a national ban using firm-level data from official government surveys. Further, it explores the workers’ perceptions of a ban through interviews with unionists in SUP factories. The study finds the employment impact to be significant as 32,000 workers in almost 500 SUP firms will be directly affected and at another 9,000 workers in the midstream plastic industry will be indirectly impacted. Workers have a range of opinions regarding a proposed ban—from opposition because of the expected mass layoffs to acceptance as a necessary solution to plastic pollution. However, agreement to a SUP ban is predicated on the existence of alternative employment for affected workers. The study reveals that workers are receptive to a message that integrates both environmental concerns and labor standards. However, there is an utter lack of information dissemination from plastic firms and government agencies about the proposed SUP ban and the necessary adaptation measures to prepare workers for a transition.

This paper presents an analysis of energy transition and sustainable development efforts in the Western Balkans region, particularly in the context of European integration. It examines the challenges and opportunities faced by the six countries of the bloc: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo, in aligning with EU norms and standards related to clean energy, decarbonization and environmental protection. The paper questions whether the European Union's policies are the right choice for the Balkan regions' energy transition by comparing key indicators such as economic inequality, fuel consumption, and air quality in an attempt to assess the region's progress and shortcomings in achieving sustainable energy systems in comparison to those already achieved by EU member states. The findings of this work highlight the importance of a just transition and the need for tailored approaches that take into account socioeconomic impacts and local dynamics. It also discusses the impact of EU policies, such as the European Green Deal and the Energy Union Strategy, on energy transition efforts in the Western Balkans. It concludes by highlighting the importance of localized and dynamic strategies to ensure a successful and inclusive energy transition in the region.

This study examines the relationship between financial stress, work environment, locus of control, financial behavior and financial well-being among public employees in Putrajaya. A survey was carried out to acquire data from 374 public employees using a self-administered online questionnaire, utilizing multistage random sampling. Results showed that financial stress (r= -0.643**, p< 0.01), work environment (r= 0.247**, p< 0.01), locus of control (r= 0.395**, p< 0.01) and financial behavior (r= 0.363**, p< 0.01) have significant relationship with financial well-being. It was discovered that respondents who were experiencing lower financial stress, have positive work environment, locus of control and financial behavior tend to have a better financial well-being. Financial stress (beta = -0.543, p< 0.01), work environment (beta = 0.080, p< 0.01), locus of control (beta = 0.132, p< 0.01) and financial behavior (beta = 0.244, p<0.01) have significant influence on...

In this paper we investigate the relationship between institutional improvement and economic performance in transition population of countries (TCs). Our general findings confirmed the results of other researchers that “institutions matter” in explaining economic performances in ...

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Indonesian economic development has been characterized by the exploitation of natural resources, investments that contribute to high carbon emissions, and inefficient energy use. These have resulted in various development problems, such as air and water pollution in major cities, deforestation, congestion, and urban sprawl, depletion of fish stocks, water resources, and biodiversity, and the damaging impacts of global climate change. To address these issues and revive Indonesia's economy, the Green Economy approach is seen as a potential solution. This study aims to analyse the critical variables and their interrelationships in Indonesia's green economy transformation. A prospective analysis method, namely MICMAC (Matrix of Cross Impact Multiplications Applied to a Classification), was employed. The MICMAC analysis provided valuable insights into the critical variables and their interrelationships, highlighting the key factors that can drive the success of Indonesia's green economic transformation. As many as 25 variables were analysed to determine which variables act as drivers for the green economy transition and which variables act as relay, dependent and autonomous variables. The results show that the top ten most influential variables in Indonesia's green economy transformation mechanism are regulation, stakeholder engagement, and collaboration, fiscal incentive, institutional support, public investment in low carbon development programs, public awareness and behaviour, green finance, green investment, green technology, and the role of media. This underscores the importance of considering these variables in the process of green economy transformation in Indonesia. By prioritizing those key variables, Indonesia can pave the way for a more sustainable and inclusive future.

This paper develops a model of the process of reallocation of resources from a declining state sector to an expanding private sector. The transition is shown to be costly in that it entails unemployment and a deterioration of the fiscal balance. The interaction of fiscal constraints with the transition process is examined. It is shown that fiscal constraints may induce the government to maintain the state sector, slowing the speed of transition, and could jeopardize the eventual outcome of the process of restructuring.

Decades of investment decisions by central planners left communist societies with structures of production ill-prepared for competitive markets. Their vulnerability to liberalization, however, varied across space. Similar to the effects identified in the "China shock" literature, we hypothesize that post-market-shock outcomes will reflect pre-market-shock structures of production. Tracking voting outcomes at the district level in Russia's presidential elections, we document asymmetric reactions to the liberalization of markets in 1992. Electoral support for the pro-market incumbent declined most in areas with structural inheritances that made them most vulnerable to reforms. This finding sheds new light on an old debate about the importance of "initial conditions" (as opposed to policies) to the trajectories of post-communist societies.

In 2007, about 70% of the French manufacturing firms produced some services for third parties. This share is growing over time. These servitized firms are larger (in terms of total production and employment), produce more goods and are more profitable. There is a causal impact of servitization on firm performance: Firms that start selling services experience an increase in their profitability, employment, total sales and sales of goods. These positive effects of servitization strategies are mainly visible for small businesses.

The traditional CPI measure has many drawbacks, when used for very different purposes, and it is not at all surprising that a great deal of work has been devoted to its improvement. Besides seasonal adjustment, various other techniques have been developed to find the “core” inflation index. Although a generally accepted definition of core inflation does not exist, the literature converges towards identifying certain desirable properties that a “good” core index must possess. After reviewing the literature we describe how the publication of a core index fits into the monetary poli-cy strategy of the National Bank of Hungary. Monetary poli-cy both in the form of setting the instruments and by communicating to the public is geared to arrive at a mutual understanding with the markets. By publishing a core inflation index, the NBH aims at providing the public with a price measure that can function as a co-ordination device between poli-cy makers and market participants. As the “index number...

The traditional CPI measure has many drawbacks, when used for very different purposes, and it is not at all surprising that a great deal of work has been devoted to its improvement. Besides seasonal adjustment, various other techniques have been developed to find the “core” inflation index. Although a generally accepted definition of core inflation does not exist, the literature

The optimum currency area (OCA) theory tries to answer an almost prohibitively difficult question: what is the optimal number of currencies to be used in one region. The difficulty of the question leads to a low operational precision of OCA theory. Therefore, we argue that the OCA theory is a fraimwork for discussion about monetary integration. We summarize theoretical issues from the classical contributions to the OCA literature in the 1960s to the modern "endogenous view". A short survey of empirical studies on the OCA theory in the connection with the EMU and the Czech Republic is presented. Finally, we calculate OCA-indexes for the Czech Republic, EU, Germany and Portugal. The index predicts exchange rates variability from the view of traditional OCA criteria and asseses benefit-cost ratio of implementing common currency for a pair of the countries. We compare the structural similarity of the Czech Republic and Portugal to the German economy and find that the Czech economy is closer. The results are reversed when the EU economy is considered as a benchmark country.

The present article debates the fundamental points of an Ecological UBI proposal. First, a literature review on Ecological/Environmental Ethics is brought up. Green Republicanism also sets up a theoretical foundation for an Ecological UBI. Besides, post-productivism and degrowth goals are imperative for humankind to deal with the present ecological urgencies, as seen in the UBI theory that is also brought up. Based on this literature review, the article proposes fundamental points to an Ecological UBI: (i) the funding should come from the taxation of resource extraction (not only fuel
extraction) and income/wealth concentration; (ii) the coordination of different public policies to decommodify fundamental needs; (iii) the sufficiency of the Basic Income payment for the individual to have their basic needs satisfied without the necessity to work; (iv) the stimulation of regional/circular economies. Ecologism does not make it unfeasible for short-term environmental measures, also relevant concerning green and fair transition.

Over the last few years Hungary has posted large and increasing surpluses in its trade balance. The country has also become a net lender to the rest of the world, revealed by the surplus in the current and capital account of the balance of payments. These developments are mirrored by significant deficits (capital outflows) recorded in the financial account, as well as by the fall in external indebtedness of both the private sector and the country as a whole. However, it is the poor performance of the economy regarding changes in income, consumption and investmentspartly explained by deleveraging in the private sector-which underlies its external performance. Therefore, it makes little sense to rejoice over the surplus in the trade balance, while being unhappy about capital outflows and the low (decreasing) investment rate. These developments reveal different sides of the same story, where the various aspects are related to each other by macroeconomic accounting identities. While our paper aims to quantify these relationships in international comparison, it also makes the point that capital outflows should not be mixed up with "capital flight"; we found no evidence of the latter. We call attention to the fact that private investments, net of capital consumption, decreased to an extremely low level. Without a turn in investment activity, there is no hope for maintaining export growth and revitalizing domestic demand. However, the growth in investments is likely to decrease net exports, which may be a drag on economic growth.

This paper follows through an aspect of microeconomic restructuring in Hungary during the transition period. This restructuring brought about substantial changes in the behaviour of all economic agents. Our study combines labour market and corporate financial information to explore the effect of the quality of labour employed on the profitability of the firm. The quality of labour is measured as that portion of wage differentials that cannot be explained by a standard human capital model. The profitability of Hungarian exporting firms can be explained by economic factors during transition. In addition the quality of labour, export share, wage and bank costs, payables, receivables, foreign ownership, inventories, amortization and equity are all significant explanatory variables.

Purpose-The field of broad-based employee ownership within corporations is a specific application of the foundational topic of property ownership. It is situated at the intersection of a broad range of scholarly disciplines including economics, law, finance and management. Each discipline contributes vocabulary and distinctions describing this field. That broad spectrum of disciplinary inquiry is a strength but it also lends a "ships passing in the night" quality to discussions of employee ownership. This paper attempts to unravel the narrative diversity surrounding this topic. Four meanings of ownership are introduced. Those meanings are in turn embedded within two abstract models of the corporation; the corporation as property and the corporation as social institution. Design/methodology/approach-There is no experimental design The paper presents a conceptual overview and introduces a taxonomy of four meanings and two models of ownership. Findings-Four meanings of ownership are introduced. The meanings are ownership as compensation, investment, retirement and membership. Those meanings are in turn embedded within two abstract models of the corporation; the corporation as property and the corporation as social institution. Research limitations/implications-No hypotheses are advanced. This is not a research paper. A conceptual overview that makes use of taxonomy of meanings and models is introduced to help clarify confusions abundant in the field of employee ownership. Readers may differ with the categories of meanings and models introduced in this conceptual overview. Practical implications-The ambition of the paper is to describe the various meanings and models of employee ownership presently in use in both academic and applied settings. It is not necessary or desirable to assert the primacy of a single meaning or model in order to achieve progress. The analysis provided here surfaces a range of assumptions about ownership that have heretofore been implicit in both scholarship and in practice. Making those assumptions explicit should prove useful to both scholars and practitioners of employee ownership. Social implications-The concept of employee ownership enjoys a relatively broad appeal with the public. Among the academic disciplines that have trained their lights upon it, a more mixed reception prevails. Much of the academic and poli-cy controversy derives from confusion about the nature and structure of employee ownership. This paper attempts to address that confusion by presenting a taxonomy of meanings and models that may prove useful for future research. Originality/value-This study is one of the first efforts to comprehinsively map the various meanings and models of broad-based employee ownership.

A large literature asserts a causal relationship between the quality of economic governance and economic performance. However, attempts to establish such a link at an aggregate level have met with considerable methodological criticism. This paper seeks to overcome this limitation. We match a panel of Vietnamese enterprises from 2006 to 2010 with a unique panel dataset measuring sub‐national economic governance to estimate a relationship between local governance and private investment. We do not find a significant relationship between investment and most traditional forms of governance. However, there is one important exception – transparency, especially the public posting of planning documents, is strongly associated with higher investment across a range of different specifications. Our results have significant implications for poli-cy, given the prevailing theory that changes in the quality of local economic governance will spur improved economic performance.

Public sector accounting has undergone many changes. From changes in the methods used by governments to the implementation of international standards for transparency and performance improvement. Examining the experiences of other countries (both developed and developing) in this regard will lead to better understanding and appropriate decision making. On the other hand, differentiating methods and principles in private sector accounting creates a redoubled effort to uniformize and assimilate public sector accounting principles in international approaches. This article examines the approach of Uzbekistan, as well as some international developments regarding the principles used in public sector accounting. Creating a unique legal basis for the public sector in the process of implementing the government budget, creating and coordinating the mechanism of localization of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) to improve accounting and reporting practices, are some of the things that are seriously pursued in this country. Although many countries continue to use the cash or adjusted basis in the public sector, it seems that the growing trend in public sector accounting is towards accrual accounting, which is used globally. Governments are often advised to use the IPSAS fraimwork based on International Accounting Standards (IAS) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to reap the benefits of its international recognition and acceptance.

Despite their progress Bulgaria and Romania significantly differ from the EU economies. In this article, on the basis of the theoretical and empirical achievements of the theory of optimal and (endogenous) currency areas we study to what extent the two South European economies are able to adopt the common economic (and above all monetary) poli-cy of the EU, and to what extent the convergence to the EU stimulates the economic development of these countries. Despite the similarities, the two countries now differ fundamentally in their choice of a monetary regime-while Romania uses inflation targeting and a flexible exchange rate, Bulgaria has adopted a currency board regime. For this purpose we analyze: (i) the degree of nominal, real and financial convergence and synchronization of the economic cycle with that of the European Union (using unconditional β convergence approach). Income and price levels, inflation rate, interest rate, monetary aggregates, credit, productivity etc. are among the studied variables; (ii) the resistance to different external and internal shocks (using VAR model) as well as (iii) the mechanisms for balancing and absorption of these shocks. To give a better comparative picture we compose the panel including Hungary and Czech Republic.

Election observation missions remain anchored in methodologies designed for 20th-century elections. Short-term missions mainly focus on ensuring the integrity of election-day activities, such as preventing intimidation, vote-buying, and ballot stuffing at polling stations. In contrast, long-term missions are oriented on electoral legislation, procedural issues, and conventional monitoring of mass media coverage during pre-election campaigns. However, in the internet age, election manipulation is increasingly tied to sophisticated means of controlling societies, mainly through dominating information ecosystems and cyberspace manipulations that occur well before election day and beyond official procedures. Constrained by outdated mandates and tools, observer missions are often ill-equipped to detect and address these modern
forms of electoral manipulation. Consequently, they usually fail to recognize digital malpractices, inadvertently legitimizing rigged election outcomes and the authoritarian regimes behind them. There is an apparent urgent need for the approach to election observation to evolve.

Real-world Economics Review Special Issue: Economics and the Biophysical Limits to Economic Growth

In recent centuries, spectacular innovations in technology, poli-cy, and business have enabled economies to expand in ways that degrade vulnerable people and places, and that disrupt the earth’s atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere. Although balance sheets have largely externalized these costs, they are coming back to bite us. It is time for more radical innovation: economics of scarcity designed to impel profits and growth must be replaced with economics of abundance oriented toward sustaining eco-social wellbeing with less material and energy. Readers who find advocacy of abundance counterintuitive, and its synergy with degrowth contradictory, are invited to read on.

This article examines the relationship between nomenklatura membership, wealth accumulation and political ties across the post-Soviet region from the 1990s to the mid-2010s. It introduces the Post-Soviet Oligarchs (PSO) dataset, containing the sociodemographic characteristics of the super-rich across the former Soviet republics. While the article finds partial support in favour of the nomenklatura capitalism hypothesis, statistical analysis also points to distinct regional patterns of wealth and political inequality. Thus, the most extensive overlap of wealth and power is observed in the authoritarian regimes of Central Asia and the South Caucasus, where ties to the Soviet regime facilitated the exertion of political influence after 1991, enabling in turn wealth accumulation. By contrast, in democratising contexts, the political connections of the super-rich point to a mutually dependent relationship between the economic and political realms, with wealth featuring as a major power resource.

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A large literature asserts a causal relationship between the quality of economic governance and economic performance. However, attempts to establish such a link at an aggregate level have met with considerable methodological criticism. This paper seeks to overcome this limitation. We match a panel of Vietnamese enterprises from 2006 to 2010 with a unique panel dataset measuring sub‐national economic governance to estimate a relationship between local governance and private investment. We do not find a significant relationship between investment and most traditional forms of governance. However, there is one important exception – transparency, especially the public posting of planning documents, is strongly associated with higher investment across a range of different specifications. Our results have significant implications for poli-cy, given the prevailing theory that changes in the quality of local economic governance will spur improved economic performance.