Irena Grosfeld

Ecole d'économie de Paris

We study the long-run effects of forced migration on investment in education. After World War II, millions of Poles were forcibly uprooted from the Kresy territories of eastern Poland and resettled (primarily) in the newly acquired Western Territories, from which the Germans were expelled. We combine historical censuses with newly collected survey...

Using detailed panel data from the Pale of Settlement area between 1800 and 1927, we document that anti-Jewish pogroms—mob violence against the Jewish minority—broke out when economic shocks coincided with political turmoil. When this happened, pogroms primarily occurred in places where Jews dominated middleman occupations, i.e., moneylending and g...

We exploit a unique historical setting to study the long-run effects of forced migration on investment in education. After World War II, the Polish borders were redrawn, resulting in largescale migration. Poles were forced to move from the Kresy territories in the East (taken over by the USSR) and were resettled mostly to the newly acquired Western...

Poland was divided among three empires—Russia, Austria–Hungary, and Prussia—for over a century until 1918. The partition brought about divergence in culture, institutions, and economic development. We use spatial regression discontinuity to examine, which empire effects are persistent.We find that differences in incomes, industrial production, educ...

We estimate long-term effects of Jewish presence in Europe before World War II, using discontinuity at the border of the “Pale of Settlement” area where Jews were allowed to live in the Russian Empire. Current residents of the Pale have lower support for market, and are less entrepreneurial but more trusting compared to those outside the Pale. We s...

We use spatial regression discontinuity analysis to test whether the historical partition of Poland among three empires—Russia, Austria‐Hungary, and Prussia—has a persistent effect on contemporary Poland. We find that the main difference in voting across Polish territories attributed by many observers to the legacy of empires is driven by omitted v...

We estimate long-term effects of Jewish presence in Europe before World War II, using discontinuity at the border of the “Pale of Settlement” area where Jews were allowed to live in the Russian Empire. Current residents of the Pale have lower support for market, and are less entrepreneurial but more trusting compared to those outside the Pale. We s...

We estimate long-term effects of Jewish presence in Europe before World War II, using discontinuity at the border of the “Pale of Settlement” area where Jews were allowed to live in the Russian Empire. Current residents of the Pale have lower support for market, and are less entrepreneurial but more trusting compared to those outside the Pale. We s...

Poland was divided among three empires — Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Prussia — for over a century until 1918. The partition caused divergence in culture, economic development, education and the quality of government among the three parts of Poland. We use spatial regression discontinuity to examine which empire legacies are persistent. We find tha...

We investigate the long-term effects of the important presence of Jews in Eastern Europe before the Second World War and their disappearance during the Holocaust. The Pale of Settlement, the area which Jewish residents were confined to in the Russian Empire, is used as a source of exogenous variation in the size of the Jewish population before the...

This paper provides evidence of the changing attitudes to inequality during transition to the market in Poland. Using repeated cross-sections of the population, it identifies a structural break in the relationship between income inequality and satisfaction. Whereas in the first stage of the transition process, an increase in income inequality was i...

This paper explores the relationship between ownership structure and firm value in firms listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. The results of the estimations, taking into account simultaneity and reverse causality, show that the relationship between ownership concentration and firm value differs across firms belonging to the sector of innovative tec...

The emerging a version to inequality: evidence from long subjective data This paper illustrates the emergence of inequality aversion in a transition country. Using a series of Polish cross-section surveys, we identify a structural break in the relationship between income inequality and subjective well-being. Inequality, initially perceived as a pos...

This paper provides an illustration of the changing tolerance for inequality in a context of radical political and economic transformation and rapid economic growth. We focus on the Polish transition experience, and explore individuals' self-reported attitudes. Using unusually long and frequent (monthly) representative surveys of the population, ca...

This paper provides an illustration of the changing tolerance for inequality in a context of radical political and economic transformation and rapid economic growth. We focus on the Polish experience of transition and explore self-declared attitudes of the citizens. Using monthly representative surveys of the population, realized by the Polish poll...

This paper provides evidence of a change in the relationship between individual satisfaction with the state of country's economy and income inequality during transition from a command to market economic system. Using data from a series of extensive and frequent surveys of Polish population, we identify a structural break in this relationship. In th...

The governments of Hungary, Poland and Russia have used buy-outs as an important privatization strategy which can be viewed as forming a continuum from straightforward sales where management and employees generally achieve significant ownership, as in Hungary, via intermediate approaches as in Poland where both payment and free distribution of shar...

We analyse the changes in ownership concentration in firms included in two mass privatisation programmes in Poland and the Czech Republic. We find that despite important differences in the design of the two privatisation schemes and despite different quality of regulatory environments, the ownership structure emerging 4-5 years after the initial di...

The initial view of the advantages of ownership concentration in joint stock companies was determined by the concern about the opportunistic managerial behavior. The growing importance of knowledge and human capital in the operation of firms shifts the focus of concern: excessive ownership concentration may stifle managerial initiative. This may be...

Mass privatization offers a particularly suitable framework to study the change in ownership concentration as the extent of change is unusual for a stable market economy. Focusing on two different mass privatization schemes in two transition economies, Poland and the Czech Republic, we find that despite important differences in the design of the tw...

The book contains selection of 18 papers presented at the 2002 CASE International Conference under the same title.

Recent studies argue that the spread-adjusted Taylor rule (STR), which includes a response to the credit spread, replicates monetary policy in the United State. We show (1) STR is a theoretically optimal monetary policy under heterogeneous loan interest rate contracts in both discretionay and commitment monetary policies, (2) however, the optimal r...

In this paper we analyse the impact of product market competition and ownership structure on firm performance. Our results show that product market competition has a positive and significant impact on performance. Concerning the effect of ownership concentration, we find a U–shaped relationship with performance. Firms with relatively dispersed and...

In this paper we analyze the impact of product market competition and ownership structure on corporate performance. We focus on the firms listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, which are either privatised or newly created firms. First, we study the separate effects of competition and ownership concentration on firm level productivity growth. Next, we...

We compare the change in ownership concentration in firms privatized through two different programs of mass privatization: the Czech voucher scheme and the Polish program of National Investment Funds. Despite important differences in ownership structure at the start of the process and in the quality of legal and regulatory environments, the emergin...

This paper proposes an explanation of the puzzling coexistence of elements of both inertia and dynamism in the Russian labor market. In an environment of high uncertainty, risk averse and heterogeneous workers face a trade-off between wages and insurance against risk. The firm proposes a contract that includes a low monetary wage and the access to...

This paper proposes an explanation of the puzzling coexistence of elements of both inertia and dynamism in the Russian labor market. In an environment of high uncertainty, risk averse and heterogeneous workers face a trade-off between wages and insurance against risk. The firm proposes a contract that includes a low monetary wage and access to soci...

In this paper we use a survey of 281 Czech, Hungarian and Polish newly-established small private firms in order to shed some light on the constraints these firms face in the credit market. The results of our survey show that imperfections in capital markets in Central European economies do not seem to actually inhibit the growth of new private firm...

This paper proposes an explanation of the puzzling coexistence of elements of inertia and dynamism on the Russian labour market using a segmentation model. Risk averse workers are differentiated according to their productivity. They face a trade-off between wages and access to social services provided by the firm. The most productive workers leave...

We analyse wage setting behaviour in the period of transition using the 'right to manage model'. The results show a significant change in wage bargaining in 1990. However, the insider power, measured by the employees' capacity to capture productivity gains, persists. The sensitivity of wages to productivity changes is much stronger on the upside th...

This inductive study offers an examination of 23 cases in which informants from firms engaged in large-scale global projects reported unforeseen costs after failing to comprehend cognitive-cultural, normative, and/or regulative institutions in an unfamiliar host societal context. The study builds on the conceptual framework of institutional theory....

Cet article propose une vision du marche du travail russe permettant d'expliquer la coexistence d'elements d'inertie et de flexibilite par un phenomene de segmentation. Placant l'incertitude au cœur des decisions des firmes et des employes, il montre que les travailleurs, qui ont tous une aversion pour le risque, peuvent adopter des comportements d...

The impact of a stronger work requirement for welfare recipients in a workfare program is studied in an efficiency wage model where a representative firm chooses its level of monitoring activities. A stricter workfare policy raises employment as well as the monitoring intensity. It typically increases profits and reduces the tax rate. The impact on...

This paper looks at the behaviour of large industrial firms in Poland in 1988–94. Using a longitudinal enterprise-level data set, we are able to test systematically various hypotheses concerning firms’ reactions to the change in their environment. The results confirm a structural break after the introduction of the package of reforms in 1990. Labou...

It is widely recognized that putting in place appropriate financial institutions is a crucial element of any transformation strategy in Central and East European countries (CEECs). The importance of financial systems is documented in a number of empirical studies that have shown the positive impact of financial development on economic growth (see K...

[eng] This paper underiines the main objectives and trade-offs faced by Central and Eastern European countries. It describes the strategies adopted by Poland, Rus­sia and the Czech Republic as being dominated respectively by three objectives : enterprise restructuring, depoliticization of the economy and the emergence of market institutions. [fre]...

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the behaviour of Polish and Czech enterprises under conditions of radical economic reform. On the basis of a sample of 400 large industrial firms and of 20 case studies, we show that the extent and nature of the adjustments in the two countries are fairly comparable. Our analysis of the restructuring suggests...

[eng] Reform credibility and the adjustment of enterprises in Poland and the Czech Republic. . The purpose of this paper is to analyse the behaviour of Polish and Czech enterprises under conditions of radical economic reform. On the basis of a sample of 400 large industrial firms and of 20 case studies, we show that the extent and nature of the adj...

This paper interprets the existing evidence on enterprise restructuring in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Despite differences in restructuring policies, the pattern of observed restructuring appears similar in the three countries. Contrary to initial expectations, managers of SOEs have engaged in significant adjustment activities. We argue...

This paper looks at empirical evidence and economic theory in order to find some guidelines for building the institutions of a financial system. It argues that in the countries in transition, priority should be given to stimulating information generation about investment opportunities, and to ensuring substantial external evaluation of companies' p...

Article describes Central and East European Countries (CEEC) in which in the absence of capital market the performance of enteprises was determined by real variables, financial flows being adjusted to real flows. The lack of a full fledged financial system has often been identified as one of the main weaknesses of centrally planned economies. Descr...

In 1989 economic theory found itself confronted with an explicitly formulated demand: new East European governments started to look for its help in designing a virtuous sequence of transformation measures.

[eng] Reform credibility and the adjustment of enterprises in Poland and the Czech Republic. . The purpose of this paper is to analyse the behaviour of Polish and Czech enterprises under conditions of radical economic reform. On the basis of a sample of 400 large industrial firms and of 20 case studies, we show that the extent and nature of the adj...

Several East European countries are embarking on major programmes both to expand their private sectors by encouraging new firm formation, and to transfer much of the existing state sector into private ownership. This paper studies the early experience of Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia in these areas, and reviews in detail their privatization pl...

Privatization is one of the key policy problems for the new Central and Eastern European governments seeking to bring about the transition to market-type economies. Broadly interpreted, the topic includes both the transfer of existing state firms into private hands, and steps to encourage new business formation and the creation of an entirely new p...

[fre] Cet article traite de certaines questions liées à la transition des économies de l'Est vers des systèmes « de marché ». Après un bref aperçu historique où nous mentionnons les tentatives de réformes partielles engagées dans les années quatre-vingt en Pologne et en Hongrie, et après avoir évoqué certains arguments théoriques en faveur de la pr...

The theory of economic reforms in Soviet Union and Eastern Europe did not follow the development of western economic theory. Although the fundamental economic issues are different in the West and in the East (employment and inflation versus shortages and lack of technological progress) the reform economics is concerned with the optimal mix of centr...

Investment processes in the centrally planned economies (CPEs) are characterized by persistent shortages and disequilibria. This assertion is accepted almost unanimously in the literature. Several authors, notably Kornai (1980), go even further and attribute the responsibility for all shortages in the CPE to the state productive sector which is cha...

Planners' investment decisions, usually taken as exogenous, are estimated in this paper by the maximum likelihood method with threshold effects. Planners look for a macroeconomic equilibrium and are sensitive to information about internal and external pressures, but their adjustment is not smooth; they react to disequilibrium indicators only after...

L'importance attribuee au surinvestissement ainsi que le role de la consommation et des salaires reels rendent la theorie du cycle de Hayek particulierement adaptee a l'analyse du cycle d'investissement dans les economies planifiees. L'impulsion qui met en mouvement le processus d'expansion vient d'une grande pression en faveur de l'investissement,...

Fluctuations in the Rate of Growth of Investment in Centrally Planned Economies. This article deals with various interpretations of the phenomenon of fluctuations in the rate of growth of investment in planned economies. Although a fair amount has been written on the subject, we are still without a genuine theory of the investment cycle, i.e. a th...

Planning Procedure and Economie Inducement Problems. The planning procedures which establish the principles for calculating and exchanging information in the formulation of the economic plan do not take into account the problem of motivating the agents. The supposition is that once the principles are established they will be scrupulously followed...