Public Attitudes towards the Market Economy Values in Belarus (PDF/199Kb) [29/12/2006]
Rakova, E.
The purpose of the current report is to analyze the public attitudes towards the economic policies carried out in Belarus, the reforms implemented in the neighboring countries, aid provided by Russia to Belarus, and the activities performed by private entrepreneurs. Also, it traces the perceptions of individual poverty and the major directions of market reforms.
Attitude of Belarusian Population towards Market Reforms (PDF/124Kb) [28/12/2006]
Shymanovich, G., Chubrik, A., Rakova, E.
Analysis of growth factors in transition economies reveals that sustainable growth is impossible without comprehensive economic reforms. Evidently, understanding of the necessity of reforms and positive attitude of the society towards them are important for their successive implementation. Belarusian society is rather polarized in their attitude towards market reforms: 50% of population is paternalistic-orientated, while 34% supports market reforms.
The Role of Credit in the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Belarus: Estimating the State of the Microfinance Sector (PDF/63Kb) [27/12/2006]
Naurodski, S.
This publication discusses the results of the research on the access to credit by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Belarus, and the role of microfinance and credit unions in this process. The research has established that the vast majority of small and medium enterprises in Belarus does not borrow. Also, they do not perceive a lack of credit as a problem. In Belarus, bank microcredits are the most widespread form of borrowing, while loans provided by credit unions occupy a very small share in the total volume of loans.
Local Authorities and the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises: International Experience and Guidelines for Belarus (PDF/60Kb) [26/12/2006]
Kozarzewski, P., Gorzynski, M., Badei, G., Tarasevich J., Rakova, E.
The cooperation between local authorities and entrepreneurs is an important direction of development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Local authorities are able to determine the ease and the speed or (excessive) length and/or non-transparency of permission procedures, to set up tax rates, duties, and rent charges, and to define the possibilities of privatization of municipal property. Experience of other countries has shown that in the countries with a developed market economy, this cooperation is an important economic policy priority.
Major Problems of the Regulatory Environment and Policy Proposals for Its Improvement (PDF/60Kb) [25/12/2006]
Kozarzewski, P., Badei, G., Tarasevich, J., Rakova, E.
High administrative and legal barriers retard the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Belarus. Entrepreneurs denote such urgent problems as high taxes, complicated, contradictory and everchanging legislation regulating entrepreneurial activity (ranging from high tax rates to price regulation), numerous inspections and unjustifiably heavy fines, laborious expensive and vague permission procedures, price controls, excessive paperwork, etc.
The Effect of Exchange Rate Changes on Belarus’ Trade Balance (PDF/83Kb) [30/06/2006]
Tochitskaya, I.
This study tests the impact of real effective exchange rate changes on Belarusian trade balance. The findings suggest that depreciation has a short-run and long-run positive effect on trade balance. The negative immediate impact of exchange rate depreciation can be explained at the same vein as in numerous papers examining the short-run and long-run relationship between exchange rate changes and trade balance by existence of the lag in the time during which consumers and producers adjust to a new buying patterns, and asymmetries between the changes in export and import prices. Therefore, all in all, depreciation-based adjustment policy can be considered as reasonable solution to balance Belarus foreign trade.
Wage and Labor Productivity in Belarus (PDF/142Kb) [24/02/2006]
Chubrik, A.
The paper considers the relationship between growth of labor productivity and wages in Belarus. Based on the econometric analysis it was shown that the relationship between these indicators is not statistically significant. It was found that wage growth is closely related to the political business cycle. Additionally, the paper analyzes effects of wage policy (rising wages during the political campaigns, wage targeting, and reducing wage differentiation) on the whole economy, the workers incentives, and on the monetary policy. It is shown that absence of the link between growth of wage and labor productivity distorts workers’ incentives, as well as structure of labor demand and supply. Wage targeting and the link of this target to the US dollar limits monetary policy independence, while increasing wages above productivity leads to worsening financial status of enterprises and reduces share of investment in GDP. In order to avoid the abovementioned effects it is necessary to eliminate practice of setting us target indicators of average wage, which are de-facto mandatory, and to stop direct government regulations aimed at decreasing of wage differentiation.
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