The impact of capital account liberalisation on productivity growth: the evidence from Poland since 1995

This thesis investigates the relationship between the Capital Account Liberalization (CAL) process and changes in productivity in light of theoretical and empirical studies. It also presents a significant investigation into the nature and evolution of the capital control process, through a cross-country analysis and individual country analysis of Poland during the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. In addition, this thesis analyses the determinants of capital controls in the cross-countries analysis. Then, this thesis presents a profile of the Polish productivity distribution across manufacturing sectors, structure and level of the capital control process and sector characteristics, and an analysis of how these have changed over time. The empirical results are derived through an application of the best practices and techniques of productivity estimation on sector level data. Chapter 1 provides the description of key reforms in Poland and the structure of these thesis. Chapter 2, discusses strengths and weaknesses of various CAL measures and presents different trends of CAL measures. Chapter 3 employs selected CAL measures in a cross-county analysis, investigating the determinants of the CAL process. Chapter 4 analyses the trends of productivity in Poland. Chapter 5 analyses the CAL effect on manufacturing sector productivity by including sector financial dependence, sector investment and trade openness, and then compares this results with sectoral proxy for CAL measures. Chapter 6 concludes by discussing the results and provides a possible avenue for further research.