Azerbaijan: legal status of business entities
Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to investigate the legal status of business entities in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Azeri government intends to establish a suitable environment for local and foreign companies working in the country.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a scientific investigation aimed at discovering and interpreting facts related to legal entities in the Azeri context. The goal of the research process is to produce new knowledge, through the exploratory research, which structures and identifies new problems, and the constructive research, which develops solutions to a problem.Findings – The main finding is that constructing the legal entities within the legal frameworks and in compliance with the European standards play a substantial role in overall economic growth and in attracting foreign investments in the local economy as well as in implementing measures for continuing economic reforms, further improving business climate and developing the non‐oil sector in line w...
External Capital and Political Structures: The Case of Azerbaijan
Interest in the extensive natural resources of post-communist states coupled with the hopes of economic and political development attached to it, have brought to surface the long standing debate about the effects of external capital inflows on political structures. Most of the political economy literature has shown the effects to vary by type of external capital; such as international loans, development aid, foreign direct investment , equity investments, labor remittances, oil rents, etc. (Stallings 1993, Haggard and Kaufman 1993, Mahon 1995, Maxfield 1997, Chaudry 1997). However, what is often missing from these analyses is the role of pre-existing institutional structures which mediate the local effects of external capital. The institutional relationship in existence before a state is integrated into capital flow networks plays a determining role in the state’s ability to allocate resources in the service of coherent economic policies and development. Therefore, the question I seek to answer in this paper is whether there is something unique about the post-soviet transition; in other words, whether or not the institutional design of the Soviet past has stunted the institutional capacities of these states as they prepared to utilize this external capital to boost their economic and political developments. Among all the former Soviet republics, Azerbaijan, which based its projections of growth on its extensive oil resources, is especially vulnerable to the effects of foreign capital that characterize the petro-states. However, whether or not Azerbaijan will become a petro-state depends on the pre-existing institutional capacities of its state. Thus, I make two arguments in this paper. First, the institutional capacity of the Azerbaijani state--measured by its ability to extract and deploy resources, enforce property rights, and resist the demands of rent-seekers-has been shaped both by the unique legacies of its Soviet past and by the magnitude of the task of state-building. Second, the Azerbaijani state’s institutional capacity is likely to be further weakened once oil rents start flowing into the economy.
Private nursing homes: Providing good value?
The well‐documented expansion in the supply of residential and nursing home care over the past decade has been fuelled by public funds. About half of the patients receiving care in private homes are receiving income support towards their fees. There is now growing concern that the substantial amounts involved should represent value for money.