Effects Of Structural Reforms Research Articles

The effect of structural reforms on employment and the trade–labour link: Robust evidence from Europe and Central Asia

AbstractWe use Bayesian model averaging techniques to assess the role of different types of structural and institutional variables and their interaction with specific characteristics of the economy, as determinants of employment dynamics for 30 economies in Europe and Central Asia. We find that, once short‐run dynamics are controlled for, common structural determinants for the employment rate emerge, including tax rates, human capital, availability of technology, labour market regulation and trade openness. The results show that the effect of labour market regulation on employment outcomes is affected by other characteristics, such as trade openness. Focusing on the trade–labour link, we find that labour market reforms toward a more flexible labour market have a positive impact on employment ratios, and this effect is stronger for economies characterised by relatively low level of trade barriers. In addition, the positive employment effects from labour market regulation reforms are stronger; the less flexible is the initial labour market regulatory framework. These findings bring important policy insights related to the employment potential of further structural reforms and trade integration for the countries in the region.

The Effect of Structural Reforms: Do They Differ between GDP and Adjusted Household Disposable Income?

The Effect of Structural Reforms: Do They Differ between GDP and Adjusted Household Disposable Income?

Asymmetric price adjustment and the effects of structural reforms and low demand in the gasoline market: the case of Greece

ABSTRACT The pricing mechanism in the gasoline market has often been the subject of public debate in Greece during the crisis years. Inefficient pricing could imply oligopolistic practices and losses to consumers’ welfare. A way to test for inefficient pricing, is by testing for asymmetries in the adjustment of domestic gasoline prices to world oil price changes. The present paper tests for asymmetric adjustment of gasoline prices to oil price variations in the Greek market and examines whether the structural reforms that took place in the post-2010 period had any impact on the functioning of the market. The analysis applies a consistent threshold cointegration technique and makes use of the most recent observations at the lowest frequency available. The results provide evidence in favour of symmetric behaviour, just for the recent period. This may reflect competitive behaviour by suppliers who had to interact in a new institutional framework following the reforms.

The Effects of Structural Reforms: Evidence from Italy

This paper quantifies the macroeconomic effects of three major structural reforms (i.e., service sector liberalizations, incentives to innovation and civil justice reforms) undertaken in Italy in the last decade. We employ a novel approach that estimates the impact of each reform on total factor productivity and markups in an empirical micro setting and that uses these estimates in a structural general equilibrium model to simulate the macroeconomic impact of the reforms. Our results indicate that, accounting for estimation uncertainty, the increase in the level of GDP as of 2019 due to the sole effect of these reforms (ignoring all the other shocks that the Italian economy suffered in the same period) would be between 3% and 6%. The long-run increase in Italy's potential output would lie between 4% and 8%, with non-negligible effects on the labor market.

Effects of structural reforms – A single case study of a municipal merger in Styria

Gemeindefusionen sind ein ungebrochen aktuelles Thema, das sowohl in der Praxis als auch in der Wissenschaft rege diskutiert wird. Der Stand der Forschung zeigt, dass die Befunde bezüglich der Auswirkungen von Gebietsreformen heterogen sind und die Reformaktivitäten in Österreich bislang kaum beleuchtet wurden. Dieser Beitrag bietet einen Überblick zu den jüngsten Strukturreformen in Österreich und spezifische Einblicke in eine steirische Fusionsgemeinde als Einzelfallstudie. Hierfür wurden einerseits vor der Fusion mittels Leitfadeninterviews die Erwartungen von Vertretern aus Gemeindepolitik und -verwaltung eruiert. Andererseits wurden drei Jahre nach der Fusion (vollzogen per 1.1.2015) erneut Interviews mit Repräsentanten und Mitarbeitern dieser Gemeinde geführt, sodass den ex-ante artikulierten Erwartungen die ex-post wahrgenommenen Auswirkungen gegenübergestellt werden können.

ДЕТЕРМІНАНТИ СИСТЕМИ ОХОРОНИ ЗДОРОВ’Я В ПРОБЛЕМАТИЦІ ЗБАЛАНСОВАНОГО РОЗВИТКУ

The issue focuses on the health care system as a key element of the structure of the sustainable development economy. The first stage of the study was to determine the factors and initial conditions for building an effective health care system in Ukraine. It is argued that the initial conditions for building the effective health care system in countries vary widely and are characterized by varying strengths of challenges and threats. It is concluded that Ukraine’s economic development is largely determined by global determinants along with national ones, among them the most influential are: capital, success and effectiveness of structural reforms, effective changes in industrial policy, transformations in public consumption, investment-innovation and technological policy, institutional development infrastructure of small and medium business. The systemic problems of the domestic economy and the health care system have been identified. The planned financing of health care elements for 2021 has been analyzed and its weaknesses have been identified. Emphasis is placed on the contradictions between the priorities of the state budget and its coverage. The problem of potential sources of expansion of general expenses is considered. The basic elements that are necessary for the development of the health care system of Ukraine in modern conditions have been identified. The content of economic, ecological and social components of the transformation of the health care system, which are realized through the active participation of the state, private sector and society in the development of the medical sphere of the country, is revealed. The environmental component in the aspect of health care is revealed through crisis determinants that qualitatively change the indicators of health system efficiency. A set of determinants of health care functioning on a global scale is described, among which economic, political, ecological threats, educational crisis; threats of global terrorism are singled out. The basic requirements to the health care system are defined and substantiated on the basis of the analysis of the health care market of Ukraine, the analysis of the purposes of the health care system functioning and the purposes of sustainable development in Ukraine. The content of the basic requirements for the health care system, which corresponds to the formulated basic principles of the effective health care system, is revealed. The priorities for formulating the requirements for the health care system in the conditions of sustainable development of economic relations have been formulated.

SOME RECENT DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING THE EUROPEAN UNION FISCAL POSITION

During the last decade, fiscal policies in the euro area and structural reforms in the European Union’s countries that experienced different fiscal problems were a priority for the EU decision-makers. The existence of sound and sustainable public finances in the EU and, in particular, in the euro area is based, on the one hand, on macroeconomic stability, and on the other hand, on balanced and sustainable economic growth. This paper focuses on capturing the recent developments in public finances, more precisely some indicators essential for assessing the health of the EU economy and of its Member States. The results of our research show an improvement of them, as a whole, as an effect of structural reforms, investments and also of responsible fiscal-budgetary policies.

Asymmetric Price Adjustment and the Effects of Structural Reforms in a Low Income Environment: The Case of the Gasoline Market in Greece

The pricing mechanism in the gasoline market has often been the subject of public debate in Greece during the crisis years. Inefficient pricing could imply oligopolistic practices in the market and losses to consumers’ welfare in a period characterised by a dramatic fall in consumers’ income and standard of living. A way to test whether pricing is efficient in the market is by testing for asymmetries in the adjustment of domestic gasoline prices to world oil price changes. The present paper has two aims: (a) the first is to investigate the existence of asymmetric adjustment of gasoline prices to oil price variations in the Greek market, thus contributing to the relevant literature; (b) the second is to examine whether the structural reforms that took place in the gasoline market and the large fall in income, which characterise consumers’ behaviour in the recent period, had any impact on the pricing dynamics in the market. To this end, the analysis: (i) applies the TAR-ECM threshold cointegration technique, which assumes asymmetric adjustment towards the long-run equilibrium; (ii) makes use of observations at the highest frequency available; and (iii) uses the most recent data. The results provide evidence in favour of symmetric behaviour just for the crisis period. This may reflect competitive behaviour by suppliers who had to interact in a low demand environment and under a new institutional framework following the reforms, along with a change in consumers’ search behaviour who had to deal with a severe fall in their income.

Asymmetric Price Adjustment and the Effects of Structural Reforms in a Low Income Environment: The Case of the Gasoline Market in Greece

The pricing mechanism in the gasoline market has often been the subject of public debate in Greece during the crisis years. Inefficient pricing could imply oligopolistic practices in the market and losses to consumers’ welfare in a period characterised by a dramatic fall in consumers’ income and standard of living. A way to test whether pricing is efficient in the market is by testing for asymmetries in the adjustment of domestic gasoline prices to world oil price changes. The present paper has two aims: (a) The first is to investigate the existence of asymmetric adjustment of gasoline prices to oil price variations in the Greek market, thus contributing to the relevant literature. (b) The second is to examine whether the structural reforms that took place in the gasoline market and the large fall in income, which characterise consumers’ behaviour in the recent period, had any impact on the pricing dynamics in the market. To this end, the analysis: (i) applies the TAR-ECM threshold cointegration technique, which assumes asymmetric adjustment towards the long-run equilibrium; (ii) makes use of observations at the highest frequency available; and (iii) uses the most recent data. The results provide evidence in favour of symmetric behaviour just for the crisis period. This may reflect competitive behaviour by suppliers who had to interact in a low demand environment and under a new institutional framework following the reforms, along with a change in consumers’ search behaviour who had to deal with a severe fall in their income.

Asymmetric Price Adjustment and the Effect of Structural Reforms in the Gasoline Market in Greece

Efficient pricing in the gasoline market has often been the subject of public debate in Greece during the recent years. The present paper: (a) Investigates the possible existence of asymmetric adjustment of gasoline prices to oil price variations in the Greek market in the recent years, thus contributing to the relevant literature. (b) Examines whether the structural reforms that took place in the gasoline market in the post-2010 period had any impact on the pricing dynamics of the market. To this end, the analysis applies the TAR-ECM cointegration technique, which is considered to be the most robust econometric method for identifying such kind of asymmetries, and makes use of observations at the lowest frequency available. The results provide evidence in favour of symmetric behaviour for the period following the structural reforms in the market, but not for the period before the reforms. This could be due to the change of the behaviour of the market participants as a result of the new institutional framework.

Structural reforms and growth in developing countries

This paper investigates the effects of structural reforms on real per capita GDP in the short and long-run by employing Pooled Mean Group approach. I find that during the period 1973–2006, there is a positive long-run relationship between international trade reform, financial (capital account, and domestic finance) reforms and real per capita GDP. My results also indicate that in the short-run, financially more open economies suffer more from international trade and domestic financial reforms. More importantly, the adverse effects of reforms in the short-run can be mitigated by improving property rights and contract enforcement.

Structural reforms and fiscal adjustments: policy options for the euro area

This paper analyses the effects of structural reform and fiscal consolidation policies in the Euro Area using a stylized new-Keynesian model. A number of issues are focused upon: (i) the modelling and effects of fiscal consolidation and structural reforms, and (ii) evaluation of alternative reform and consolidation scenarios, including their joint implementation.

Reform redux: Measurement, determinants and growth implications

Measurement issues are one of the most important reasons for the highly contrasting findings in the literature on the effects of structural reforms on growth. This paper puts forward improved measures of economic liberalization across countries and over time, focusing on the unique experience of the transition economies. The paper shows that structural reforms, according to these new measures, follow a much richer dynamics than the one suggested by existing indexes. It also finds that such improved measures also generate stronger links with current theoretical work: in standard growth specifications, it finds that these new measures of reform have larger and more precisely estimated effects than the existing ones.

Assessing the Effect of Welfare Reforms on Public Assistance Caseloads in Four Ohio Counties

Abstract The implementation of welfare reform at the local level is critical to assessing the effects of structural reforms initiated since the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act of 1996. Wide variations in the activities undertaken in response to national welfare reform have hindered efforts to understand the factors that have contributed to the success of welfare reform apparent in caseload reductions. This paper reviews Community Human Service Plans in four Ohio counties and examines their trends in caseloads. Two strategies emerge: “job attachment” and “human capital development.” These differences in local implementation can be related to caseload trends.

The effects of structural reforms on productivity and profitability enhancing reallocation: evidence from Colombia

Estimates for the U.S. suggest that at least in some sectors productivity enhancing reallocation is the dominant factor in accounting for productivity growth. An open question, particularly relevant for developing countries, is whether reallocation is always productivity enhancing. It may be that imperfect competition or other barriers to competitive environments imply that the reallocation process is not fully efficient in these countries. Using a unique plant-level longitudinal dataset for Colombia for the period 1982–1998, we explore these issues by examining the interaction between market allocation, and productivity and profitability. Moreover, given the important trade, labor and financial market reforms in Colombia during the early 1990s, we explore whether and how the contribution of reallocation changed over the period of study. Our data permit measurement of plant-level quantities and prices. Taking advantage of the rich structure of our price data, we propose a sequential methodology to estimate productivity and demand shocks at the plant level. First, we estimate total factor productivity (TFP) with plant-level physical output data, where we use downstream demand to instrument inputs. We then turn to estimating demand shocks and mark-ups with plant-level price data, using TFP to instrument for output in the inverse-demand equation. We examine the evolution of the distributions of TFP and demand shocks in response to the market reforms in the 1990s. We find that market reforms are associated with rising overall productivity that is largely driven by reallocation away from low- and towards high-productivity businesses. In addition, we find that the allocation of activity across businesses is less driven by demand factors after reforms. We find that the increase in aggregate productivity post-reform is entirely accounted for by the improved allocation of activity.

Reconciling Stability and Growth: Smart Pacts and Structural Reforms

This paper analyzes the decision by a government facing electoral uncertainty to implement structural reforms in the presence of fiscal restraints similar to the Stability and Growth Pact. To the extent that the reform package entails budgetary costs, the model shows that a fiscal pact erodes incentives to carry out structural reforms, sacrificing future growth for present stability. Although the pact effectively addresses the deficit bias resulting from electoral uncertainty, the induced reduction in reforms implies ambiguous welfare effects. We conclude that a “smart” (i.e., welfare-improving) pact should take into account the budgetary effects of structural reforms. Our conclusions are consistent with the actual principles guiding the implementation of the Stability and Growth Pact.

Structural reforms and inventory management: Evidence from Indian industries

The study in its analysis on the effects of structural reforms on management of inventories in selected public and private sector industries in India, observed that on the basis of ratios in inventory management techniques, over investment still seems to prevail. Besides, the results of partial adjustment approach show that finished goods inventory and raw materials as a component of inventory, adjust faster to the desired level, than the inventory as a whole, for the selected industries under private limited companies in India.