Uzbekistan Quality Job Creation as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Economic Growth

Uzbekistan Quality Job Creation as a Cornerstone for Sustainable Economic Growth
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entire economy.
4
This implies that a shock to, for example, GM Uzbekistan, 
the country’s largest automobile manufacturer, can ripple through the entire 
supply chain and affect overall macroeconomic performance. In transition 
economies, including Uzbekistan, large state-owned firms were part of many 
countries’ basic make-up. Dismantling these state-owned enterprises has 
caused substantial output declines, at least in the short run, in most transition 
economies of Central and Eastern Europe and in the Russian Federation 
(Blanchard 1997).
Figure 5.13 plots a Lorenz curve using firm employment levels, which indicates 
quite some heterogeneity between firms in terms of employment. About 
20% of the firms account for 60% of all employment. If all firms were of equal 
size, the Lorenz curve would be at the diagonal. The further away from the 
diagonal, the more skewed is the size distribution. The curve indicates that 
the size distribution in Uzbekistan is less skewed than is typical in advanced 
countries. For example, Duparcq and Konings (2016) found that for Italy, 20% 
of the firms account for 80% of all employment. This suggests that relative 
to firms in advanced countries, Uzbekistan may have constraints to firm 
growth, preventing them from fully exploiting scale economies. Examples of 
such constraints include access to finance, access to global markets, and lack 
of good managerial practices. Moreover, a less skewed size distribution might 
reflect a lower level of entrepreneurship, resulting in fewer micro firms. This 
would imply a less intensive process of “creative destruction,” an essential 
process to achieve innovation and growth.
4
Examples include General Motors during the financial crisis of 2008 and the recent Volkswagen “diesel gate.”
Source: Authors’ calculations.