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State-Owned Enterprises, Shirking and Trade Liberalization

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  • Madanmohan Ghosh
  • John Whalley

Abstract

We explore the implications of trade liberalization in economies with State Owned enterprises (SOEs) and shirking. SOEs are modelled as controlled by the members of the enterprise who determine output and effort levels, while facing output prices and wage rates set by government. Enterprise members must collectively meet a budget constraint that the value of sales equals the enterprise wage bill plus an exogenous enterprise commitment to the state budget. Labour can shirk either through low on the job effort (leisure), or through moonlighting to second jobs in the private sector. Three alternative formulations of equilibria in SOE economies are explored, and in these trade liberalization can produce effects opposite from conventional competitive models. In particular, the output of import competing SOEs increases rather than falls, and negative effects on imports can also occur. These models when calibrated to 1995 data for Vietnam also suggest quantitatively much larger impacts from trade liberalization than is the case for comparable conventional competitive models. This is because departures from Pareto optimality in SOE economies can be large and trade liberalization acts to discipline shirking associated with these inefficiencies. The implication we draw from our analysis is that to evaluate policy initiatives, such as trade liberalization, in developing and transition economies without explicitly recognizing the role that SOE's can play may be misleading. This is especially the case where SOEs account for a significant fraction of economic activity and shirking is involved.

Suggested Citation

  • Madanmohan Ghosh & John Whalley, 2000. "State-Owned Enterprises, Shirking and Trade Liberalization," NBER Working Papers 7696, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7696
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    Cited by:

    1. Daeheon Choi & Chune Young Chung & Young-Eun Kim & Ye Jun Kim & Paul Moon Sub Choi, 2020. "Sustainable Corporate Ownership Structures and Earnings Management in the Vietnamese Stock Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-32, July.
    2. Henrik Barslund Fosse & Pascalis Raimondos‐Møller, 2012. "Reducing Tariffs According to WTO Accession Rules: The Case of Vietnam," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(2), pages 331-341, May.
    3. Waspodo Tjipto Subroto, 2015. "Revitalization of Pancasila Economic System in the Globalization Era," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 5(4), pages 860-868.
    4. Dong Shao & Shukuan Zhao & Shuang Wang & Hong Jiang, 2020. "Impact of CEOs’ Academic Work Experience on Firms’ Innovation Output and Performance: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-21, September.
    5. Francesco Capalbo & Claudio Lupi & Margherita Smarra & Marco Sorrentino, 2021. "Elections and earnings management: evidence from municipally-owned entities," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(3), pages 707-730, September.
    6. Bai, Tao & Chen, Stephen & Xu, Youzong, 2021. "Formal and informal influences of the state on OFDI of hybrid state-owned enterprises in China," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5).
    7. Claustre Bajona & Tianshu Chu, 2010. "Reforming State Owned Enterprises in China: Effects of WTO Accession," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 13(4), pages 800-823, October.
    8. Francesco Capalbo & Marco Sorrentino & Margherita Smarra, 2018. "Earnings Management and State Ownership: A Literature Review," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 13(6), pages 117-117, April.
    9. John Whalley & Shunming Zhang, 2006. "State-Owned Enterprise Behaviour Responses to Trade Reforms: Some Analytics and Numerical Simulation Results Using Chinese Data," NBER Working Papers 12780, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Woocheol Lee, 2023. "Trade Liberalization, Distributional Coalitions and Economic Growth: A Case of Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-19, July.

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    JEL classification:

    • F4 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance
    • H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government

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