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This study investigates the relationship between property ownership and firm performance in transition economies. The adoption of market-oriented institutions across transition economies after the collapse of the Berlin Wall was not uniform. Our empirical work confirms substantial differences in the propensity of property ownership and firm performance across transitional economies because of institutional heterogeneities. We identify two types of post-communist economies: the countries with solid market-based institutions (Eastern European economies) that were able to reap the benefits of property ownership leading to increased profitability and productivity and the nations with weak institutions (Commonwealth of Independent States) where the principal association of interest is not consistent with conceptual predictions. Our empirical analysis shows that institutional differences, specifically a higher risk of capital expropriation, may force firms in the CIS to avoid capital ownership, limiting firms' ability to exploit the positive benefits of capital ownership on firm profitability and productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth with disabilities have much lower participation rates in postsecondary education compared with youth without disabilities. There is a need to understand ecological factors that influence their differential participation. This research examined the impact of parental receipt of welfare on postsecondary enrollment among youth with disabilities. Through a multivariate linear probability analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), receipt of welfare benefits was observed to predict nearly one third of the adjusted probability difference in attending postsecondary education between youth with and without disabilities. The effects of parental and school characteristics on the probability of attending postsecondary education are also explored, and implications for service providers, practitioners, and researchers in transition to adulthood are discussed.

Objective: It is useful to examine workplace factors influencing employment outcomes of individuals with disabilities and the interplay of disability, employment-related, and employer characteristics to inform rehabilitation practice. Design: A number of large national survey and administrative data sets provide information on employers and can inform this inquiry. Results: Provides an overview of 9 national survey and administrative data sets that can be used to investigate the impact of employer practices on employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. Conclusions: Provides specific examples of disability and employment research, which can be performed with these data sets and implications for rehabilitation policy, practice, and research.

Purpose: We explore whether certain employer characteristics predict Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) charges and whether the same characteristics predict receipt of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act charges. Method: We estimate a set of multivariate regressions using the ordinary least squares method. Results: Most employer-level characteristics that predict the receipt of ADA charges also predict the receipt of other types of discrimination charges. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that educational outreach efforts aimed at reducing the level of perceived disability discrimination in the workplace can be more efficient by targeting employer groups who are likely to receive charges under not only the ADA but also other statutes as well.

Individuals with disabilities have lower rates of workforce participation and lower earnings than their nondisabled peers. This article traces the history of the U.S. workforce development policy framework, including the Workforce Investment Act of 1998; the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended; and the impact of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 on both of these policies. Reviewing literature and administrative data, we discuss how these policies have impacted current rehabilitation practice and identify remaining service delivery gaps. We conclude with a set of recommendations for enhancing the current workforce development policy and practice environment. (Contains 6 endnotes and 4 tables.)

This paper addresses the impact of political regimes on carbon emissions (CO2) from a historical perspective, covering the period of 1970–2015. Our sample consists of 153 countries that we follow for 20 years before the transition (1970–1990) and 26 years after it (1990–2015). During transition, post-Communist states experienced a decline in CO2, when controlling for economic variables. Transition had a positive impact on the environment only in cases when it was associated with democratization. When transition has led to consolidation of autocratic regimes, CO2 has increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This article develops an empirical model that tests whether in post‐communist Russia prior membership in a civil society organization (CSO) motivates civic activism. Revisiting Tocquevillian notions of a nurturing effect by formal civil society organizations of civic activism, we aim to help explain recent research findings showing that civic activism is sustainable and vital in Russia. Methods: To test the main hypothesis of the study, we use the cross‐sectional survey of Russians aged 18 and older in the fall of 2014 (N = 1,500) representing 43 regions conducted by the Russian Civil Society Monitoring Survey of the Higher School of Economics' Centre for Studies of Civil Society and the Nonprofit Sector (2006–). We use the propensity score matching (PSM) technique to estimate the main effects. We also show that the effect of unobserved factors on our PSM estimates is limited using Rosenbaum bounds analysis. Results: The PSM analysis suggests that for all four indicators of civic activism, that is, willingness to integrate with other members of society, participation in tenant meetings, engagement in charity activities, and engagement in home improvement, CSO participation positively impacts civic activism. The impact varies from a 7.2 to 15.8 percent higher propensity of civic activism for CSO participants. Conclusion: We conclude that prior participation in a CSO can have a motivating influence on civic activism such as charity work, residential home improvement, willingness to integrate with other members of the society, and participation in tenant meetings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research shows that the ACA health insurance exchanges have generated more merger activity in the health insurance market. The impact is robust to control for an extensive set of factors suggested by both neoclassical and behavioural frameworks. The economic impact of this ACA provision is substantial with 3.8 more months of unusually high merger activity or 52 more merger bids per year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests whether the implementation of a key market‐oriented reform in post‐Soviet Russia, property rights in land, proxied by the percent of privatized land by region, affected the pace of sub‐national economic growth during two unprecedented expansion periods: 2001–2008 and 2010–2014. Individuals gained the Constitutional right to own land in 1993, but implementation was stalled. The pace of land privatization can be explained by arguably exogenous factors such as distance to Moscow, as well as climate and also regional political culture, proxied by concentration of votes in the 2004 presidential election. We show that this rate of land privatization in Russia's regions was significantly associated with output growth in 2010–2014, confirming the policy importance of this measure for developing economies. Regions where private holdings expanded most rapidly with the enforcement of property rights in land, gained a competitive advantage in the growth process through increased investment in fixed assets and private consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]