This paper investigates the impact of an increase in the cost of firing employees on the performance of manufacturing firms in Indonesia. This analysis uses difference-indifferences analysis to measure the impact of the policy change on the output, employment, wages, and input mix of firms. The new law applied to all formal sector firms in Indonesia. So, in order to identify treatment and contr...

We compared two MR imaging sequences, fast inversion recovery for myelin suppression (FIRMS) and echo-planar FIRMS (EP-FIRMS), for depicting gray/white matter contrast. In 18 patients, the frequency bandwidth (BW) was optimized for each sequence; in nine patients, the BW was held constant. In the BW-optimized group, the mean contrast-to-noise ratio (C/N) was three times higher with the FIRMS se...

By analyzing the survey data from 1211 firms across 14 industries and across various ownerships in Shanghai, the study examines factors that influence information technology (IT) usage in Chinese firms applying a technology – organization environment framework and institutional theory. This study provides an in-depth investigation into the government’s role in promoting Chinese firms’ IT advanc...

This paper studies discretionary charges, which I define to be fees and levies that are collected at the discretion of local officials, as firm output distortions. I document that there is an inverted-U relationship between size of firms and discretionary charges paid by firms in China. I build a simple political economy model that captures interactions between firms and local officials. These ...

This paper used data from firms operating in twenty Latin American countries to evaluate whether firms’ perceptions about the nature and predictability of governments’ regulatory policies, the prevalence of intervention in the domestic economy, and the degree to which corruption served as an obstacle to business activity influenced firms’ growth. The paper also tested whether firms’ size or mul...

The economics of small group insurance makes offering health benefits to employees a risky business. Surveys of employers from 1989 to 2003 reveal that more rapid premium increases are forcing small firms to impose higher cost-sharing. In 2003, premiums for small firms (3-199 workers) increased 15.5 percent, outpacing the 13.2 percent increase for large firms (200+ workers). From 2000 to 2003, ...

Rural firms have a higher survival rate than urban firms. Over the first 13 years after firm entry, the hazard rate for firm exits is persistently higher for urban firms. While differences in firm attributes explain some of the rural-urban gap in firm survival, rural firms retain a survival advantage 18.5% greater than observationally equivalent urban firms. We argue that in competitive markets...

In this paper I empirically investigate the early international entrepreneurship of indigenous Chinese firms using data on 3,948 firms surveyed by the World Bank in 2002-03. I find important differences in the extent and motivation of early internationalization between indigenous and foreign-invested Chinese firms. Despite having started with internationalization relatively more recently than m...

Despite a continuing interest in the compared efficiency of labor-managed and conventional firms, only a handful of comparative empirical studies exist. These studies suggest that labor-managed firms have the same productivity levels as conventional ones, but organize production differently. However, the data used in these studies cover a single industry, or firms matched by industry and size i...

Export and the readiness to export constitute the first step of international marketing, which are affected by both internal and external factors of firms. One of the most important internal  factors is the presence of skilled personnel. The purpose of this study was to define the relationship between staff qualification and encouragment with the readiness level of Iranian pharmacuetical firms ...