Department of State Title VIII Grant
The Davidson Institute, through the continued funding support of the Department of State's Title VIII Research and Training on Eastern Europe and the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union, has administered the research competition "Public Policy and Business Practices Affecting the Development of Markets in CEE and Eurasia" for the past five consecutive years.
2004 Grant Cycle
In its fifth year of participating in the Department of State Title VIII program, the Davidson Institute received $245,000 in funding. We received six proposals for research on the Balkans and Central and Eastern Europe from which the selection committee awarded twogrants. The Institute also received nine applications for research focusing on the countries of Eurasia from which the selection committee awarded four grants.
2004 Title VIII Grantees
Liba Brent, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Linkages to Markets: Assisting Kazakh Women Artisans with Marketing Handicrafts through Collaboration with International Marketing Institutions.
The project proposes to design and research the process of linking women felt artisans in rural Kazakhstan to international marketing institutions and to domestic and foreign markets with the objective of reducing poverty and promoting the development of women-led small business.
Larry Fauver, University of Miami
Equity Issuance in Emerging Markets: The Effect of Preemptive Rights on Shareholder Wealth
The main goal of the project is to document the effect of preemptive rights against dilution on the wealth effects of equity and convertible securities issues in Eurasia and Southern Europe. Preemptive rights are expected to be an important protection for minority shareholders and we intend to show that well-designed preemptive rights are a necessary requirement for the development of capital markets in emerging economies.
Valentina Hartarska, Auburn University
Regulation and Market-Based Mechanisms of Control: What Works Best for Microfinance Insitutions in the Balkans, the Caucasus and in Central Asia
The research will evaluate the effects of regulation and market-based mechanisms of control, such as microfinance rating agencies, credit bureaus, and competition, on the performance of Microfinance Institutions operating in the Balkans, the Caucasus, and in Central Asia.
Annette Kim, MIT
From Workers to Owners: The Impact of Property Rights Reforms on Investment and Productivity in Rural Romania
In order to extend the literature on how to commercialize agriculture in transition countries and improve their competitiveness in the world market, we propose to measure whether land ownership structures (private, partnerships, and cooperatives) and legal tenure status have increased farm investment and productivity rates in rural Romania between 1996-2006.
Regine A. Spector, University of California – Berkeley
The New Silk Road: The Politics of Trade and Exchange in the Post-Soviet Region
The objective of the project is to understand how the post-Soviet economies become integrated into the international economy by studying why one particular form of trade, shuttle trade, emerged. Building on the transition economy, new institutional economics, economic sociology, and the state-building literatures, this project highlights the role of certain service-sector businesses (cargo companies and tourist agencies) in the aggregation and institutionalization of informal trade.
Susan Linz – Michigan State University
Factors Influencing Employee Performance in Armenia and Kazakhstan
Using Armenia and Kazakhstan as case studies of former socialist economies with different cultural traditions, this project proposes to survey workers and conduct in-depth interviews with top-level managers to collect the requisite data to analyze factors that influence worker motivation in both the short term and long term.