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Using the Austrian Business Survey between 2011 and 2016, we study how firms' individual credit market experiences influence their beliefs about the bank lending policy. Firms that have recently experienced a loan rejection are more likely to believe that the lending policy is restrictive. We see similar effects for firms that were granted loans, but with conditions worse than anticipated. Exploiting the panel structure shows that firms without recent credit market experience are less likely to change their beliefs, which converge towards the middle category. Our findings are in line with theories of rational inattention and with asymmetric experience effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The onset of the war on drugs in Mexico at the beginning of 21st century had far‐reaching effects on its citizens, including most obviously, an unprecedented increase in the homicide rate. We analyse the correlation between violence on social capital in the 32 federal states of Mexico from January 2004 to December 2016. Given the lack of data in the conflict regions of Mexico, we apply the indirect approach proposed by Guriev and Melnikov (2016), which uses internet search engine data to proxy social capital. Our results show a negative relationship between violence and social capital in Mexico. Moreover, we document a positive spatial correlation for social capital. Overall, we present an example of how the analysis of internet‐based data can contribute to the understanding of socioeconomic developments in conflict regions with unreliable standard data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on emerging market real exchange rates using a Behavioral Equilibrium Exchange Rate approach augmented by pandemic variables. We show that behavioral factors related to Covid-19 played a significant role in explaining the behavior of emerging market real exchange rates during the first wave of the pandemic. The real exchange rates were driven by the number of new Covid-19 deaths rather than by the number of new infections. These results are robust for different country samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a rich dataset on individual firms in selected EU countries between 2005 and 2012, we document a surprisingly high share of assets tied in highly inefficient firms. Moreover, we discuss different channels through which institutions may affect firm financial developments and thus the long-run growth. Using Bayesian model averaging analysis, we discuss the importance of different types of economic, financial and political institutions. We show that high institutional quality improves the financial conditions of firms. However, too lax business regulations may worsen firms’ performance possibly due to excessive risk taking behavior.

We analyze exchange rate pass-through in seven CIS countries using monthly data from 1999 to 2010. In the short run, VAR models estimates show that exchange rate movements in the US dollar affect consumer prices to a relatively high degree (about 50%), while the Euro exchange rate is less important. Moreover, short-run exchange rate pass-through is very heterogeneous across countries. In particular, countries with high-energy imports from Russia generally have higher exchange rate pass-through. In the long run, panel cointegration results show pass-through rates of 60% and above for both the US dollar and Euro exchange rates. Comparative Economic Studies (2013) 55, 705- 720. doi:10.1057/ces.2013.8; published online 25 April 2013 Keywords: exchange rate pass-through, inflation, transition economies, Commonwealth of Independent States JEL Classifications: E31, E42, F31, INTRODUCTION Having experienced periods of hyperinflation in the 1990s, the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), (1) to differing degrees, moved towards stabilized economic development with lower and [...]