Mark Schaffer
Current position Professor of Economics
Director, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation (CERT)
Head of Department of Economics, School of Management and Languages
Research Fellow at CEPR, the William Davidson Institute, and IZA Institute for the Study of Labour.
Qualifications AB, Magna Cum Laude in Social Studies, Harvard University, 1982
MScEcon in Economics, London School of Economics, 1984
MA in Economics, Stanford University, 1984
PhD in Economics, London School of Economics, 1990
Research Interests Economics of transition in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and China; applied econometrics.
Contact CERT, Department of Economics, School of Management, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh EH14 4AS.
Tel: +44 (0)131 451 3494; Fax: +44 (0)131 451 3008
E-mail: M.E.Schaffer@hw.ac.uk
 
Selected Publications

Wendy Carlin, Mark E. Schaffer and Paul Seabright, "Where are the Real Bottlenecks? A Lagrangian Approach to Identifying Constraints on Growth from Subjective Survey Data", CERT Discussion Paper 06/04, May 2006.

Tomislav Kovandzic, Mark E. Schaffer and Gary Kleck, "Productivity, Ownership and the Investment Climate: International Lessons for Priorities in Serbia", CEPR Discussion Paper No. 5357, December 2005.

Itzhak Goldberg, Branko Radulovic and Mark E. Schaffer, "Productivity, Ownership and the Investment Climate: International Lessons for Priorities in Serbia", World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 3681 and CERT Discussion Paper 05/03, August 2005.

Wendy Carlin, Mark E. Schaffer and Paul Seabright, "A Minimum of Rivalry: Evidence from Transition Economies on the Importance of Competition for Innovation and Growth", Contributions to Economic Analysis & Policy, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2004 (Berkeley Electronic Press). Previously CEPR Discussion Paper 4343, March 2004. Christopher F. Baum, Mark E. Schaffer and Steven Stillman, "Instrumental variables and GMM: Estimation and testing", Stata Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, March 2003. Working paper version: Boston College Economics Working Paper 545, 2003.

Martin Raiser, Mark Schaffer and Johannes Schuchhardt, "Benchmarking Structural Change in Transition", Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Vol. 15, No. 1, March 2004. Previously CEPR Discussion Paper 3820, March 2003, IZA Discussion Paper 727, February 2003, EBRD Working Paper 79, February 2003, and CERT Discussion Paper 03/01, February 2003.

John P. Bonin and Mark E. Schaffer, "Revisiting Hungary’s Bankruptcy Episode", in Anna Meyendorff and Anjan V. Thakor (eds.), Designing Financial Systems in Transition Economies: Strategies for Reform in Central and Eastern Europe, MIT Press, 2002. CERT working paper version.

Wendy Carlin, Steven Fries, Mark E. Schaffer and Paul Seabright, "Competition and Enterprise Performance in Transition Economies: Evidence from a Cross-country Survey". CEPR Discussion Paper 2840, May 2001.

Wendy Carlin, Saul Estrin and Mark E. Schaffer, "Measuring Progress in Transition and Towards EU Accession: A Comparison of Manufacturing Firms in Poland, Romania and Spain", Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 38, No. 5, December 2000. CERT working paper version.

Shumei Gao and Mark E. Schaffer, "Financial Discipline in the Enterprise Sector in Transition Countries: How Does China Compare?", in Juzhong Zhuang, Sarah Cook and Shujie Yao (eds.), The Chinese Economy Under Transition, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000. CERT working paper version.

Peter J. Luke and Mark E. Schaffer, "Wage Determination in Russia: An Econometric Investigation", CERT Discussion Paper 99/08, September 1999 and IZA Discussion Paper No. 143, April 2000.

Robert I. Mochrie, Mark E. Schaffer and Alan A. Bevan, "Bank and Enterprise Restructuring in Transition Economies", UN Economic Commission for Europe Economic Survey of Europe, No. 2, 1998. 

Francesca Cornelli, Richard Portes and Mark E. Schaffer, "The Capital Structure of Firms in Central and Eastern Europe", in Olivier Bouin, Fabrizio Coricelli and Françoise Lemoine (eds.), Different Paths to a Market Economy: China and European Economies in Transition, CEPR/CEPII/OECD, 1998. 

Mark E. Schaffer, "Do Firms in Transition Countries have Soft Budget Constraints? A Reconsideration of Concepts and Evidence", Journal of Comparative Economics, Vol. 26, No. 1, March 1998.  CERT working paper version.

Saul Estrin, Mark E. Schaffer and I.J. Singh, "The Provision of Social Benefits in State-Owned, Privatized and Private Firms in Poland", in Martin Rein, Barry Friedman and Andreas Wörgötter (eds.), Enterprise and Social Benefits after Communism, Cambridge University Press, 1997. 

Simon Commander, Qimiao Fan and Mark E. Schaffer (eds.), Enterprise Restructuring and Economic Policy in Russia, EDI/World Bank, 1996.

Jozef Konings, Hartmut Lehmann and Mark E. Schaffer, "Job Creation and Job Destruction in a Transition Economy: Ownership, Firm Size, and Gross Job Flows in Polish Manufacturing 1988-91", Labour Economics, Vol. 3, No. 3, October 1996.