Iootty, Mariana

Person:
Iootty, Mariana

Markets and Competition Policy Team, Macroeconomics Trade and Investment Global Practice

Author Name Variants

Iootty, Mariana, Iootty de Paiva Dias, M.

Fields of Specialization

Competition, Development

Departments

Markets and Competition Policy Team, Macroeconomics Trade and Investment Global Practice

Last updated:February 20, 2025

Biography

Mariana Iootty is a Senior Economist at the World Bank working in the Macroeconomics Trade and Investment Global Practice, Markets and Competition Policy team. Mariana is a Brazilian national and has been with the World Bank for 6 years, during which time she led projects on innovation financing, regulatory impact assessment, global value chain analysis, trade competitiveness assessment and productivity analysis in several countries in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Her main area of research is microeconomic analysis of economic development and firm performance.  Prior to joining the Bank, Mariana was a tenured assistant professor in Brazil, and a visiting fellow in the University of Reading, UK.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/10986/39074

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Publication Search Results

Now showing1 - 10 of 22

Energy Prices, Energy Intensity, and Firm Performance
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-02-20) Aterido, Reyes; Iootty, Mariana; Melecky, Martin
This paper estimates the effect of electricity prices on firm performance, focusing on firm productivity, sales, and employment. Using the World Bank Business Pulse Survey data for a sample of 24 emerging markets and developing economies during 2019–23, the paper estimates the average effect and the heterogeneous effects across industries of varying energy intensity and firms that implemented (or did not implement) energy efficiency measures (self-reported in the Business Pulse Survey). The findings show that increasing electricity prices by 1 percent reduces employment at firms in energy-intensive industries that did not adopt energy efficiency measures by about 1.5 percent, compared with similar firms in energy-non-intensive sectors. In parallel, energy-intensive firms may increase sales and productivity but this result is robust to all alternative specifications. Firms may increase sales while reducing employment after energy price hikes, by adopting energy-efficient technologies and by passing through costs to consumers in inelastic markets while reducing employment in energy-intensive sectors due to cost pressures. These results highlight the adoption of energy efficiency measures by firms as an important employment protection policy action to cope with future volatility in energy (electricity) prices.
Does State Ownership Have Limits in Romania?: An Assessment of Firm Performance and Market Outcomes before and during the COVID-19 Crisis
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-12-21) Dauda, Seidu; Pop, Georgiana; Iootty, Mariana
This paper assesses the performance of Romanian state-owned enterprises with various degrees of ownership (minority owned with 10 to 24.9 percent stakes, minority owned with 25 to 49.9 percent stakes, and majority owned with at least 50 percent ownership stakes) and control levels (central versus local state-owned enterprises and directly versus indirectly owned state-owned enterprises) relative to privately owned enterprises. The paper uses the Romanian firm-level data from the Ministry of Finance covering enterprises of all sizes from 2011 to 2020, combined with the new World Bank Businesses of the State dataset, which tracks ownership of state business entities with at least 10 percent stake in Romania. The paper analyzes whether various degrees of state ownership and levels of control matter for state-owned enterprises’ performance. The paper also assesses whether Romanian state-owned enterprises were able to act as stabilizers during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the presence of state-owned enterprises in markets correlates with market outcomes. The findings show that relative to private firms, Romanian state-owned enterprises, particularly those that are majority owned, directly owned, and local ones, employ more people, pay higher wages, but are less productive. In addition, Romanian state-owned enterprises cushioned the job and wage losses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic better than private firms, especially in competitive sectors. Finally, there is evidence that the presence of state-owned enterprises may limit private firm entry and allocative efficiency.
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and Firm Performance in Central Asia: The Role of Export Links and Digital Gains
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-08-30) Dalvit, Nicolo; Iootty, Mariana; Srinivasan, Nithya; Melecky, Martin
This paper studies the effect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the performance of firms in Central Asia. It uses unique data from the Business Pulse Survey run by the World Bank in the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, which tracks the sales and employment—along with other main characteristics—of about 1,200 to 1,800 firms in a panel structure. The survey contains two waves before and one wave after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Using the difference-in-differences methodology in a regression setup, the analysis finds that Central Asian firms with pre-invasion trade links to Russia suffered greater drops in sales and employment after the invasion—even though exporters to Russia may have experienced, on average, higher sales during the studied period. Considering the pre-invasion digitization of firms, the findings show that digitization helped firms increase their average employment during the studied period. However, the analysis does not find any significant mitigating effect of digitalization associated with the impact of the invasion.
Assessing Uzbekistan’s Transition: Country Economic Memorandum
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-11-08) Vatyan, Arman; Trushin, Eskender; Abdul-Hamid, Husein; Dalvit, Nicolo; Safarov, Maksudjon; Iootty, Mariana; Novikova, Marina; Ahmedov, Mohirjon; Manuilova, Natalia; Zorya, Sergiy; Nagaraj, Vinayak; Izvorski, Ivailo; Melecky, Martin
Uzbekistan’s transition from planning to market started almost thirty years ago following its independence from the Soviet Union. For most of this period, economic modernization and transformation were stalled, with little change in institutions and policies from those prevailing at the time of the planned economy. In late 2016, Uzbekistan surprised by launching reforms with a breadth and speed that at times exceeded the pace of those observed in some of the earlier reformers at a similar stage of the process. In November 2018, building on the results from more than a year of economic reforms, the government announced the agenda for the next phase of its bold and ambitious economic transformation. In terms of the pace of transition, Uzbekistan’s record has been mixed but appropriate, given that reforms are dependent on experience with markets and prices, initial conditions, and institutional strength. Before the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic started, the reform momentum was supported by comfortable external and fiscal buffers and a robust global economy. The buffers are still sizable, even with doubling of public debt since 2017, and a sign of strength but the pull from the global economy has been substantially diminished. The rest of the introduction reviews progress in the key areas of economic transformation.
Bank Ownership and Firm Innovation
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-06-20) de Nicola, Francesca; Iootty, Mariana; Melecky, Martin
This paper studies the effect of bank ownership on product innovation by borrowing firms, highlighting the role of the state, foreign, and combined foreign-state bank ownership. It uses Enterprise Survey data for more than 22,000 firms in 49 countries from 2016 to 2020, linked to Fitchconnect data on banks: their ownership, soundness indicators, and legal origins. The paper confirms that a firm's access to bank credit is associated with a greater probability of product innovation, even when adjusting for possible reverse causality. If the credit is provided by a state-owned bank, the probability that the borrowing firm will innovate increases. The analysis does not find a similarly positive effect for foreign bank ownership. But when considering the combined effect of foreign state ownership, the results are most statistically and economically significant. Although the results may not be extendable to research and development spending (a key input to innovation), the findings show that foreign state banks can serve as an additional financing vehicle to stimulate radical innovation alongside equity financiers.
Boosting Productivity in Kazakhstan with Micro-Level Tools: Analysis and Policy Lessons
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022) Bizhan, Asset; Iootty, Mariana; Correa, Paulo G.
Like many other countries, Kazakhstan’s economic growth has slowed since the 2007–09 global financial crisis. Although the slowdown reflected weaknesses in expanding labor and capital, the most striking reduction has been in productivity growth. In more recent years, total factor productivity growth has started to bounce back, albeit at a modest pace, possibly driven by the recovery in commodity prices. Although slower expansion in productivity has been a global phenomenon, Kazakhstan’s subdued productivity performance for a decade reflects more structural problems. Against this backdrop, Boosting Productivity in Kazakhstan with Micro-Level Tools: Analysis and Policy Lessons examines barriers and policy gaps that hinder productivity growth in Kazakhstan. The detailed analysis is uniquely based on first-time access to administrative firm-level data; the data for the period of 2009–18 covered 70,000 business establishments annually, corresponding to total employment of 1.6 million people. The unprecedented access to firm-level data deepened the understanding of the microeconomic dynamics and drivers of aggregate productivity growth and enabled identification of a wide-ranging set of policy recommendations to boost aggregate productivity growth.
Corporate Market Power in Romania: Assessing Recent Trends, Drivers, and Implications for Competition
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-12) Pop, Georgiana; Iootty, Mariana; Pena, Jorge
This paper explores firm-level heterogeneity to identify the underlying drivers of market power trends in Romania and the implications for competition and economic growth. The results show that the (sales-weighted) average markup in Romania increased by around 15 percent between 2008 and 2017. A key driving force behind this aggregate trend was the ability of a small fraction of firms -- the top decile firms in the markup distribution -- to increase their markups. These firms do not seem to follow the typical superstar firms' profile: they are smaller, less efficient, and less likely to invest in intangible assets than other firms in the markup distribution and overrepresented in less knowledge-intensive service sectors (for example, the retail and trade sector). This suggests that the increase in markups in Romania might be associated with an environment that is less conducive to competition. A decomposition exercise shows that the increase in aggregate markups has been driven mostly by incumbents rather than new entrants and exiting firms, which could be interpreted as a sign of consolidation of market power among existing firms. The paper also finds that certain firm characteristics matter to explain differences in markup performance: size, age, research and development profile, export propensity, location, and especially ownership. Further, the paper shows that additional productivity dividends are associated with increased competition in Romania. Overall, these findings illustrate potential policy angles that need to be tackled to enhance market contestability and boost productivity growth, such as addressing regulations that restrict entry and rivalry in the retail trade sector, which concentrates a substantial proportion of high-markup firms, as well as promoting competitive neutrality across markets where public and private actors compete.
Design for Impact: A State Aid Evaluation in Romania
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-06-11) Pop, Georgiana; Iootty, Mariana; Ruiz Ortega, Claudia; Bruhn, Miriam
State aid impact evaluation is new in Romania. Given its novelty, the ex post evaluation seeks to provide evidence on how effective state aid has been, on whether state aid distorted competition, and on the implications for state aid design and implementation. These aspects are fundamental to improving the efficiency of public spending and minimizing market distortions. The ex post evaluation focuses on three state aid schemes to assess whether and to what extent the aid objectives have been fulfilled, and it measures their spillover effects as well as the effects on competition outcomes. Selected based on the their importance in supporting key policy objectives, their design and complexity, and the instruments used, the three schemes include de minimis aid implemented by the Romanian Counter-Guarantee Fund and designed to incentivize access to finance for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs); state aid granted by the Ministry of Public Finance to support regional development and job creation; and state aid provided by the Ministry of European Funds to support the upgrade and modernization of research, development, and innovation. The analysis finds evidence that the state aid schemes met their objectives without distorting competition significantly. The results for the de minimis scheme to incentivize access to finance for micro, small, and medium enterprises showed that the scheme increased employment and turnover of beneficiary firms and reduced the probability of aided firms closing. The state aid scheme to support regional development and job creation fulfilled its main objectives, with robust evidence of a positive direct effect on employment creation and, to some extent, on investment. Regarding the state aid scheme to support the upgrade and modernization of research, development, and innovation, the analysis found evidence that the scheme helped promote research and development efforts.
Productivity Growth in Romania: A Firm-Level Analysis
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-10) Pena, Jorge; Iootty, Mariana; De Rosa, Donato
This paper examines productivity growth in Romania using balance sheet data for a census of Romanian firms in 2011-17. Three measures of productivity are estimated: labor productivity, revenue total factor productivity, and revenue total factor productivity adjusted for markups. Drawing from these measures, the paper follows a two-step approach to answer two fundamental questions: (i) who are the firms -- and what are their key characteristics -- driving and dragging productivity growth in Romania? and (ii) what are the drivers behind productivity expansion? A first step of the analysis characterizes productivity leaders and laggards, finding that companies at the domestic productivity frontier are older and larger, have higher capital intensity, and pay higher wages. Domestic market leaders charge higher markups, especially in manufacturing, but are not becoming more efficient. A second step of the analysis decomposes aggregate productivity growth and finds that reallocation of market shares to more efficient players has been the main driver in manufacturing but not in services, which are typically more sheltered from competition. At the same time, individual firms are becoming less productive, suggesting that there is scope to improve firm capabilities, particularly in services. These findings suggest a policy agenda for Romania centered on removing distortions to competition and boosting human capital.
Trade Liberalization and Integration of Domestic Output Markets in Brazil
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2018-10) Reis, Jose Guilherme; Iootty, Mariana; Signoret, Jose; Goodwin, Tanja; Licetti, Martha; Duhaut, Alice; Lall, Somik
This paper describes how different policy distortions have been impeding better integration of Brazil's external and internal product markets and discusses how these distortions have prevented domestic firms from benefiting from multiple sources of efficiency gains. The paper first focuses on the costs of barriers to global integration, followed by an overview of policy induced stringencies hampering domestic integration. Drawing from general and partial equilibrium analyses, the paper also provides evidence of potential impacts of removing some of those distortions and discusses policy options to promote better allocation of resources across the economy. The main conclusion of the paper is that Brazil could gain significantly from opening to foreign trade. Yet, for Brazil to take full advantage of the opportunities that external integration offers, domestic markets also need to function better, so it is key to ensure that the removal of external barriers to integration is coordinated with the removal of internal distortions to domestic market integration.