ABSTRACT The hydrocarbon sector accounts for 50% of Russian exports, leading to high commodity price volatility risks for the economy. Prior literature emphasizes the role of export diversification in development and in hedging external shocks. We investigate factors affecting regional export diversification, applying method of moments quantile regression. We devise two export diversification measures, using Theil and Herfindahl indices. Our empirical findings demonstrate that innovations spur export diversification in industrial regions, while small and medium enterprises diversify exports in industrial and non-resource regions. Natural resource extraction enforces regional exports concentration. We develop policy implications for Russian regional policymakers considering the specialization of regional economies.

ABSTRACT This study delves into the multifaceted issue of inequality in Turkey, analyzing overall and regional disparities as well as wage and gender inequalities in the labor market. Through the lens of the Big Mac Index, we investigate purchasing power and discover a decrease in regional inequality between 2002 and 2020. However, our research findings indicate a widening income gap between capital owners or the working rich and workers, particularly evident after 2015. Moreover, the wage gap between male and female white-collar workers has widened since the 2018 currency crisis, while the gap between male and female blue-collar workers has shown improvement.

ABSTRACT This paper evaluates the impact of the Slovak job retention scheme introduced in 2020 on dismissals and survival of small firms during the COVID-19 pandemic. We exploit exogenous variation in epidemic intensity, measured as new COVID-19 cases within a district per month. We show that the sensitivity of dismissals to the intensifying epidemic among unsupported firms was low, i.e. these firms were relatively unaffected by the shock. In contrast, participation in the job retention scheme reduced the sensitivity of firm dismissals to the intensification of the epidemic, preserving endangered jobs. Supported firms benefited by roughly the same amount, regardless of their management quality.

ABSTRACT This paper applies a novel time series-based additive nonparametric quantile regression technique to stress test the credit risk of conventional and participation banks in Turkey. We particularly examine the effects of the exchange rate, unemployment rate, the policy interest rate, and the public debt-to-GDP ratio on the non-performing loan ratio (NPL) of Turkish banks at distinct quantile levels. We find that their effects are heterogeneous and significantly vary across different types of banks and quantiles. Overall, participation banks are more vulnerable to negative scenarios associated with the exchange rate, unemployment rate, and public debt ratio than conventional banks.

ABSTRACT This paper studies the effect of euro adoption on the shadow economies of a group of European Union member countries using pooled mean group estimation. Controlling for macroeconomic factors and conducting several robustness checks, our results indicate that euro adoption has a negative association with the size of the shadow economy for this particular group of EU countries. We speculate this relationship may be due to increased transparency in financial markets, more government regulation post-euro adoption, or more legal-sector opportunities post-euro adoption. European countries considering euro adoption may find the results useful in making their final decision regarding currency adoption.

ABSTRACT In this study, we investigate the relationship between corruption and total factor productivity (TFP) in Turkey. Our study contributes to the literature in several ways in terms of data, empirical specification, and method. First, we use a new and novel index of corruption for Turkey between the years 1950 and 2014. Second, we estimate the long-run cointegrating relationship between corruption and TFP in Turkey. Finally, we not only investigate how corruption affects TFP, but also if this effect is conditional on government size. We find that corruption decreases TFP in the long-run and its adverse effects on TFP increases with government size.

ABSTRACT The BRICS countries are known to be a key market for foreign direct investment. This paper analyzes the decision of EU acquirers from developed economies to invest in the energy sector in BRICS countries. Using empirical evidence on 4,222 cross-border M&As and fuzzy logic, the research results show that acquirers consider macroeconomic factors as significant. When choosing a company located in the BRICS, its audit status is significant, but financial returns are not. This fact indicates that for sustainable decisions, industry is importantly correlated with financial information quality but not with company performance.

ABSTRACT This paper investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting government support affected the financial performance of Polish firms at the aggregate, regional, and sectoral levels. The results of our dynamic econometric model showed that firm performance at the aggregate level declined in 2020Q1 but recovered in 2021Q1. The pandemic negatively affected western firms but not eastern ones. Manufacturing and transport & logistics firms suffered temporarily in early 2020 but recovered in 2021Q1. Construction and trade & repair firms remained resilient. Overall, the pandemic and government support affected the sectors and regions differently, with varied policy implications.

ABSTRACT Skilled labor is an important asset for any country in its development process. The emigration of skilled personnel presents the threat of a “brain drain” which can affect a country’s growth, development and the quality of education. In this paper, brain drain is represented by the loss of academic staff and researchers from the country of North Macedonia. The intention to leave is driven by low wages and standards of living, the perception that there is “no future” in North Macedonia, a lack of promotion possibilities based on merit, and political influence in universities. Policy recommendations are suggested for institutions to develop strategies to retain academic and research staff.

ABSTRACT This paper examines the value relevance of ESG scores (environmental, social and governance) before, during, and after tumultuous economic periods (including the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID−19 pandemic) taking into consideration a company’s financial performance. The analysis, using Ohlson’s price model, is based on a sample of companies listed on European stock exchanges from 2003 to 2021. The results underline that, after each tumultuous economic period, there was a decline in the value relevance of ESG scores and an increase in investor focus on company financial performance.