Job Creation, Job Destruction and Growth of Newly Established, Privatized and State-Owned Enterprises in Transition Economies: Survey Evidence from Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania

Abstract

This paper reports new and unique firm level survey evidence to investigate the micro economic nature of the growth process and structural change in three transition countries, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. In particular we investigate gross job creation and destruction in newly established private (de novo) firms and "traditional" ones, being state owned and privatized firms and find that the de novo private firms are the most dynamic ones in terms of job creation. In addition, we find that job reallocation in the early years of transition occurs predominantly between sectors, while later on in the transition more within sector job reallocation is observed. After controlling for size and life cycle effects we find that de novo private firms consistently outperform the state owned and privatized enterprises. In addition, we find that state owned enterprises are not significantly different in their employment behavior from privatized firms. We find mixed effects of competition on employment growth. They vary according to sector and country. Finally, we find evidence that suggests efficiency wage payments are important for employment growth in Hungary, but not in Romania and Bulgaria.