This paper documents and analyses gross job flows and their determinants in Estonia over the years 1995–2001, using a unique database from the Estonian Business Registry. This database contains all ...(including also micro and small firms) officially registered firms in Estonia, the total number being almost 52,000. There are several important findings in the paper. Our results show that job flows (job creation and job destruction rates) have been extremely high in Estonia and are comparable to the levels documented for the US. These rates have not decreased recently, although worker flows (transitions between labour market states) have dropped. We also found that the firm-specific component in job flows excess of employment change had relatively lower importance than in western studies due to the emergence of small and medium-sized enterprises and labour reallocation between the economic sectors. The high inter-sectoral mobility has helped maintain high levels of job flows, while both are high also due to a favourable institutional environment, especially due to low start-up costs and a large share of micro enterprises in Estonia.
This paper presents one of the first studies of firm demographics in Estonia, particularly, on the processes of firm entry and exit as well as survival analysis of new firms. Also decompositions of ...productivity change into components consisting of resource reallocation, firm entry and exit, and productivity growth within continuing firms is carried out. Our results, derived from a novel database of the population of Estonian firms, show that firm turnover has been rather high in Estonia during the observed period from 1995 to 2001, resulting from low institutional entry barriers and emergence of the SME sector. The high survival rates for new firms and surviving firms’ relatively fast growth could reflect their relatively high productivity compared to incumbent firms and changes in the sectoral structure of the economy. The decomposition of productivity change shows that the high productivity growth has been mostly from within-firm productivity growth (e.g. the adoption of new production technologies and organizational changes), but the reallocation of production factors (especially the exit of low productivity units) has played an important role as well.
The paper analyses the social protection systems of the Baltic States comparing them to the existing systems of the other European countries and discussing poverty reduction strategies, pension ...systems, social and unemployment assistance, labour market policies and regulations. The aim is to investigate whether there are relevant differences between the Baltic States and the EU that might inhibit the integration of the former to the European Union. The rapid transformation processes have created acute social problems such as structural unemployment, poverty, social exclusion and growing inequality, challenging people’s absorptive capacity and endangering social cohesion. We show that by now the Baltic States have worked out their poverty reduction strategies, 3-pillar pension systems, unemployment insurance systems, including both the insurance component and poverty reduction as a target, and labour market institutions necessary for a market economy. The paper concludes that although the expenditure on social protection is smaller in the Baltic States than in the EU and the initially selected labour-market-based approach has been complemented with elements of a liberal system, in the future the system may have a tendency towards converging to the European social model. More attention should be paid to implementing active measures of social protection that support social cohesion.
The Eastern enlargement of the European Union and the requirements of the European Monetary Union call for increased flexibility of labour markets in both the current EU members and candidate ...countries. If labour markets and institutions are rigid in the monetary union, market disequilibrium is likely to grow. The present paper aims to give a macroeconomic overview of the Baltic States’ labour market in the period 1995?2001, laying emphasis on the issues of labour market flexibility and labour migration in the context of EU eastward enlargement. The Baltic States comprise a particular regional cluster and an interesting case for making generalizations about the processes of transition and EU eastward enlargement, and developing a new field of economics - the economics of transition and integration. In real terms, one has to admit, the influence of the Baltic economies on the EU eastward enlargement processes can hardly be significant, as the very small size of the Baltic markets bears no comparison with either the markets of the current EU member states (EU15) or the other candidate countries (CC). The Baltic States have dutifully observed the main international standards regulating labour relations in accordance with the EU rules. Comparing the Baltic States’ labour market with those of EU15 and the other candidate countries, one comes to the conclusion that the Baltic States’ labour markets are flexible. The most flexible among them is the Estonian labour market followed by that of Latvia. However, predictably, after joining the EU, the labour markets of the new members may become more rigid due to the increasing influence on them of institutions and trade unions, and due to more generous funding of labour market policies. Moreover, a decline of wage flexibility can be predicted. Free movement of labour as a natural consequence of EU enlargement will also exert pressure on the Baltic labour markets due to the possible migration of better-qualified and flexible labour force, and cross-border movement of labour within the Baltic Sea Region countries. Coupled with ageing of the population, it may increase shortage of skilled labour. Consequently, if labour mobility increases and labour market flexibility declines remarkably during the enlargement processes, market disequilibrium is likely to grow in the Baltic States as well.
