And Nobody Will Pay?

"The Premier underscored that, at the same time, a task was put to housing and communal service enterprises "not to shift off mismanagement to people," explaining that the government insists that population should not pay, for instance, for loss of water and heat in pipes."

An interesting statement: if it's not the population who will pay, who will? Unfortunately, even if the government pays, in the end it's the population that will pay...

Optimal Prices: a Definition

Prime Minister Azarov defines what an 'optimal' price is: 'We would like an optimal price: profitable to growers, producers and at the same helping preserve the current price of bread.'

UAH undervalued?

According to the Big Mac index it is!

http://www.ukrinform.ua/eng/order/?id=193577

This paper argues that the data say that 'After accounting for currency-specific constants, a 10 percent undervaluation according to the hamburger standard in one year is associated with a 3.5 percent appreciation over the following year.'

This paper has a similar conclusion.

Also worth reading is this paper

Lots of Work ahead

The current government has still lots of work to do:

"As of today Ukraine has held 142nd position out of 183 countries at the World Bank Doing Business rating."

http://www.ukrinform.ua/eng/order/?id=193754


If it needs inspiration, it can take the example of Belarus and the 9 other top reformers of 2008/2009: http://www.doingbusiness.org/Features/Reformers2010.aspx

Ukraine and the Opportunities Index

Ukraine scores 7th on the 'Index of Opportunities' which measures a country's 'capacity to undergo structural transformation and develop'.


http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/5333


This is not a surprise - many observers agree that Ukraine has lots of potential. Unfortunately, many observers also agree that so far Ukraine fails in realizing its potential.

A positive effect of UEFA 2012

As a skeptic of the UEFA 2012 tournament in Ukraine, I have had a hard time finding something positive about this upcoming event. Finally, I have come across a positive implication - in contrary to investments in unnecessary stadiums and hotels, this investment in human capital, 120000 people will be taught English, seems to be an investment that makes sense, potentially having a long term positive effect on the Ukrainian economy

http://en.rian.ru/sports/20100720/159879009.html

And the Profit Goes to?

The FIFA!

see http://kyivweekly.com.ua/style/sport/2010/07/16/145446.html

One should be skeptic about the profit estimates for South Africa ( and note that profits are in fact revenues) - the big winner clearly is the FIFA

Research on the World Cup

Wiley Interscience has a nice compilation of research on the World Cup (which they offer for free)

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/aboutus/topics/SHJ-10-19376.htm

including my article on bonuses for football players

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118484481/abstract

Back to 11 years

The Ukrainian Parliament decided to not introduce a 12 th year of secondary education after all.

http://www.ukrinform.ua/eng/order/?id=191678

This is a good example of the sorry state of Ukrainian policy making.

Nonsense on the economic success of the World Cup

this is an example for Ukrainian politicians of what not to say about EURO 2012

"Africa's first World Cup tournament has been an economic success for South Africa, President Jacob Zuma told an investment conference Tuesday.
The country got a good return on the 33 billion rand ($4.26 billion) it invested on transport infrastructure, telecommunications and stadiums, Zuma said.
Some 66,000 people got new construction jobs as a result of stadium construction and rehabbing, while money spent on security means there are 40,000 additional police officers, Zuma said, according to a transcript of his speech."

These jobs should not be seen as a return on investment! Otherwise, we can pay money to people to sit at home, call it jobs, and be happy about our 'wise' investment - the real question is: what are the extra revenues generated by the stadiums that were built and of the security created? Not 4 Billion of value I'm afraid....


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gldb1UwvRmQDbRUUnRnTv2wcFf6AD9GPK9G80

Central Bank Independence

The Ukrainian government is considering to give the NBU more independence

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-06/yanukovych-submits-law-to-strengthen-ukraine-s-central-bank-independence.html

the law proposal is making rather modest proposals though : "The governor, his deputies and the bank’s board must also suspend any party memberships" - suspending party membership does not make a person suddenly 'independent' - It makes more sense to require that the bank management has no party affiliation whatsoever.