Title VIII Research

Department of State Title VIII Grant

The Davidson Institute, through the continued funding support of the Department of State's Title VIII Research and Training on Eastern Europe and the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union, has administered the research competition "Public Policy and Business Practices Affecting the Development of Markets in CEE and Eurasia" for the past five consecutive years.

• 2004 Grant Cycle
• 2003 Grant Cycle
• 2002 Grant Cycle
• 2001 Grant Cycle
• 2000 Grant Cycle

In its fourth year of participating in the Department of State Title VIII program, the Davidson Institute received $245,000 in funding. We received twelve proposals for research on the Balkans and Central and Eastern Europe from which the selection committee awarded five grants. The Institute also received thirteen applications for research focusing on the countries of Eurasia from which the selection committee awarded five grants.

Project: Fiscal Reform and its Firm-Level Effects in Eastern Europe and Central Asia"

The researchers will assess specific firm-level impacts of fiscal reform efforts in transition countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Using firm-level survey data, augmented with country-specific data on fiscal reforms, they will statistically analyze the effects of reform on the business environment, as perceived by the firms conducting business.

Project: An Empirical Examination of Law, Freeze-out and Tunneling in an Emerging Market"

This project will examine the impact of changes in security laws and regulations that aim to improve corporate governance in the emerging market of Bulgaria. The research will provide conclusions on how best to implement legal protections of minority shareholders and improve corporate governance via regulations in an economy in transition. The paper will measure the effect of governance on stock market performance and liquidity in Bulgaria. Included in the project will be the creation of a research database of financial statements of publicly traded firms in Bulgaria which will be used to evaluate how corporate governance impacts accounting procedures and disclosure in the country.

Project: Corruption Dynamics: Evidence from the Russian Crude Oil Sector"

This project will study the Russian crude oil sector in order to gain additional insight into the incidence and covariates and determinants of corruption.

Project: Have Market Reforms Made Russia's Managerial Labor Market More Productive?"

This project will study the causes and consequences of managerial turnover in Russia during 1986-2003, testing whether market reforms have improved managerial monitoring and incentives. This will be done through examination of the link between past performance and managerial turnover, and whether the turnover improves subsequent firm performance.

Project: Employment Reallocation and Productivity Growth: Studies of Four Post-Socialist Economies"

This project analyzes the magnitudes and patterns of employment reallocation in four transition economies (Hungary, Romania, Russia, Ukraine), comparing the pre-transition to the reform period and measuring both the contributions of reallocation to aggregate productivity growth and the effects of privatization and liberalization policies on these outcomes.

Project: Monetary Measures of the Growth of Underground (Unrecorded) Economies in Twenty Five Transition Countries during the Decade of Transition: Causes, Consequences and Implications for Economic Performance, Public Policy and the Effects of Governance"

For this project, the researchers will employ monetary methods to estimate the size and growth of "underground" economies in twenty-five dollarized transition countries from 1990 - 2001. These estimates will be employed to investigate the causes, and consequences of unrecorded economic activities for business development, overall economic performance and governance.

Project: Insider Econometrics: Evidence from the Balkans"

By using case study data for three Balkan firms, the impact of workplace practices (e.g. employee ownership and teams) is investigated. Extraordinary data for individual performance over extended periods enable rigorous testing of diverse key public-policy hypotheses concerning the size, direction and durability of links between workplace practices and organizational outcomes.

Project: Evaluation of Mass Privatization in Bulgaria"

This project will use two criteria to evaluate the mass privatization program in Bulgaria: (1) How have these firms performed since privatization? (2) Did the program succeed in passing valuable assets to the public? The second question is important because it is fundamental to the legitimacy of the privatization process.

Project: Inside the Black Box: The Russian Firm and Internal Labor Markets in Economic Transition"

This project will analyze the personnel data of a large Russian manufacturing firm in order to shed light on the internal workings of a firm in a transition economy. This endeavor marks the first application of personnel economies to detailed personnel records of a firm in a transition economy.