Магістерські тези 2017

Yevhen Bukhinchenko: “IMPACT OF TRADE BARRIERS ON FIRMS’ PRODUCTIVITY AND EXPORT REALLOCATION”

This work examines the effect of Russian trade restrictions on Ukrainian manufacturing exporters using difference-in-differences OLS estimation. Furthermore, this paper compares the productivity levels of exporters to Russia with other exporters and provides the estimates of productivity trajectories for different types of exporters within 2 years from entering/exiting the export market. Finally, this thesis provides the decomposition of aggregate annual productivity changes of all exporters into two effects: own-productivity effect and export reallocation effect. Based on the KSE data center firm-level data for 2001-2015 it is shown that there is a significant negative effect of trade barriers on Ukrainian manufacturers. It is also proven that exporters to Russia on average are less productive than exporters that do not trade with Russia. The estimated productivity trajectories clearly indicate the productivity gains from entering export market and productivity losses in the case of exits. The positive reallocation effect of exporting to countries other than Russia on aggregate productivity change of all exporters shows that more productive firms reallocate their exports from Russian direction towards more lucrative countries. All these results imply that Ukrainian manufacturers should orient their trade activity to some developed countries in order to benefit from learning by exporting and boost their own productivity.

Yaroslav Kheilyk: “BIDDING STRATEGIES IN PROCUREMENT-RELATED TWO-STAGE AUCTIONS”

The focus of this research is on examining the model of the two-stage auction where the one object is sold on. In the paper, bidders’ strategies are derived for the first and second rounds in the case of two players depending on players’ type. Bidding strategies for the first round are compared to equilibrium bidder’s strategies in the standard first-price sealed-bid auction, and the auctioneer’s expected revenue is contrasted with the auctioneer’s revenue in the first-price sealed-bid auction.

Diana Kostiak: “DOES ADMISSION FEE AFFECT ATTENDEES’ SPENDING AT THE LOCAL FESTIVALS: ALFA JAZZ FEST EXPERIENCE?”

This thesis investigates the difference in expenditure structure of ticketed and non-ticketed attendees at the Alfa Jazz festival. As explanatory variables of festival expenditures we include socio-demographic and travel related predictors. The Tobit model is applied to Working-Lesser functional equations of main expenditure categories: accommodation, local transportation, food, entertainment and souvenirs. Based on Alfa Jazz Fest data it is shown that ticketed and non-ticketed festival visitors have the same structure of spendings in relative terms and most variation comes from the differences in the attendees’ profile. In absolute terms the allocation of total expenditures varies depends on the level of the visitors’ budget. Attendees with a larger budget allocate relatively more on accommodation, entertainment and souvenirs while spending a lower share of their festival expenditures on food.

Bogdan Nedilchenko: “FACTORS INFLUENCING THE PUBLIC PROCUREMENT EFFICIENCY: THE EFFECT OF E-AUCTIONS PROCEDURES IN UKRAINE”

This thesis investigates the effect of use the competitive procedure in public procurement. The Ukrainian government believed that the auction provides the lowest cost of procurement in comparison with other methods of placing contracts, however, leaving the alternative of non-competitive procedures. In this thesis, using the data on almost 8,479 contracts for the purchase of fuel (gasoline, diesel fuel, gas) in the regions of Ukraine from 2015 to 2017 I show that for the procurement of a simple homogeneous product this assumption is fair. The results demonstrate that contracts with a larger number of participants in the auction and a larger volume are characterized by a lower level of prices. In accordance with the results of previous studies based on data from other countries, my analysis showed that fuel prices in the public procurement system ProZorro in Ukraine decrease with the consolidation of contracts. The impact of competition in the auction (measured by number of participants) is represented by a quadratic function: additional bidders less effect on the price level. My analysis also revealed significant differences between the competitive procedure and reporting on the contract, which should be subject of additional studies along with study the influence of the size and type of the institutions on the efficiency of procurement.

Dmytro Skorokhod: “THE INFLUENCE OF NEGATIVE INTEREST RATE POLICY ON BANKS’ PROFITABILITY”

«You can read Adam Smith, you can read [John Maynard] Keynes, you can read anybody and you can’t find a word to my knowledge on prolonged zero interest rates – that is a phenomenon nobody dreamed would ever happen» – Warren Buffett told in an interview a year ago. His words reflect the reality of current monetary policy in which central banks go into uncharted territory by using negative interest rates. Today, if you randomly buy developed country bond, there is 1 in 3 chance that you will lose your money if you hold it to maturity, meaning investors are paying to lend to those governments. Three years of negative interest rates environment created unprecedented challenges for the financial system and banking industry in particular. Using a quarterly data of 500 banks from 33 OECD countries for the period from 2009 to 2016 we found that implementation of negative interest policy led to a relative decrease in profitability, measured by return on assets, by 12-15 bp. This change is both statistically and economically significant, which gives us the basis to discuss the effectiveness of monetary policy conducted by the central banks.