1887

OECD Economics Department Working Papers

Working papers from the Economics Department of the OECD that cover the full range of the Department’s work including the economic situation, policy analysis and projections; fiscal policy, public expenditure and taxation; and structural issues including ageing, growth and productivity, migration, environment, human capital, housing, trade and investment, labour markets, regulatory reform, competition, health, and other issues.

The views expressed in these papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries.

Anglais, Français

Raising investment to support growth in Latvia

Weak investment has weighed on the convergence process of Latvia towards higher living standards. Limited access to finance coupled with high informality, costly insolvency procedures, skilled labour shortages and weak competition have hampered business dynamism and innovation, weighing on productivity growth. To reduce high credit costs, it is key to foster competition in financial markets by reducing information asymmetries and switching costs for bank customers and strengthening competition enforcement. As capital markets are shallow compared to other euro area countries, listing of large state-owned enterprises and facilitating greater exposure of pension funds to domestic securities could help attract investors and raise access to finance. Improving contract enforcement and fostering the reallocation of resources to more productive firms will require reducing the cost of filing insolvency, expanding the remit of the Economic Court and continuing to fight corruption. This will also help raise the low level of trust in institutions, which is key to reducing high informality. As training provided by firms is among the lowest across EU countries, better cooperation among firms and with training providers in the design and delivery of training is needed. Further strengthening the resources and investigative powers of the Competition Council would help improve the enforcement of competitive neutrality, reduce the high barriers to entry and competition, and foster business dynamism and innovation.

Anglais

Mots-clés: capital markets, pricing power, digital adoption, reputational risk, allocative efficiency, Lerner index, bank credit, competition, institutional investors
JEL: G21: Financial Economics / Financial Institutions and Services / Banks; Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages; E26: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics / Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy / Informal Economy; Underground Economy; O16: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth / Economic Development / Economic Development: Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance; O32: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth / Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights / Management of Technological Innovation and R&D; J32: Labor and Demographic Economics / Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs / Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions; E22: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics / Consumption, Saving, Production, Investment, Labor Markets, and Informal Economy / Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity; G24: Financial Economics / Financial Institutions and Services / Investment Banking; Venture Capital; Brokerage; Ratings and Ratings Agencies
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error