As Russia aggressively tries to regain the status of a ‘Great Power’, whether it has the economic capacity to do so has become a matter of enormous topical importance, not just for those with a long-standing professional interest in the Russian economy, but also for a wider range of economists, political scientists, and foreign-policy specialists who need to understand the workings of this major—if somewhat unusual—state. Moreover, to determine if Russia can meet and sustain its apparent ambitions requires a knowledge not just of its current economic circumstances, but also of its economic past. What, if any, is the legacy of the Soviet period? How did Russia approach the transition from central planning to a market-type economy (a question which is relevant not just to our understanding of Russia itself, but also of transitional, emerging, and developing countries more generally)? And, leaving aside its Great Power ambitions, does the contemporary Russian economy possess the resources, structures, and policies to enable it to achieve and sustain even a viable society?
As serious research on and around the Russian economy continues to blossom, this new title from Routledge’s Critical Concepts in Economics series addresses these and other questions. In four volumes, the collection provides a much-needed compendium of foundational and the very best cutting-edge scholarship. It brings together the most informative and influential major works on the Soviet economy, Russia’s early post-Soviet transition experiences, and its continuing economic successes and failures.
The Russian Economy is fully indexed and has a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. It is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars, students, and policymakers as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.
The Russian Economy
Volume I: From central planning to shock therapy
The Soviet period – the centrally planned economy
Features
1. Janos Kornai, Economics of Shortage, North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1980, vol.B, chapter 13, pp.299-322; chapter 22, pp.561-71
2. Gregory Grossman, ‘Soviet growth: routine, inertia, and pressure’, American Economic Review, vol.50, no.2, May 1960, pp.62-72
3. Joseph Berliner, ‘The informal organization of the Soviet firm’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol.66, 1952, pp.342-65 (also in Berliner, Soviet Industry from Stalin to Gorbachev. Essays on management and innovation, Cornell UP, Ithaca and NY, 1988, chapter 2, pp.21-46)
Debates over measuring performance
4. John Howard Wilhelm, ‘The failure of the American Sovietological economics profession’, Europe-Asia Studies, vol.55, no.1, 2003, pp.59-74
5. Steven Rosefielde, ‘The illusion of material progress: the analytics of Soviet economic growth revisited’, Soviet Studies, vol.43, no.4, 1991, pp.597-611
Was the Soviet economy allocatively efficient?
6. Padma Desai and Ricardo Martin, ‘Efficiency loss from resource misallocation in Soviet industry’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol.98, no.3, August 1983, pp.441-456
7. Robert S. Whitesell, ‘Why does the Soviet economy appear to be allocatively efficient?’, Europe-Asian Studies, vol.42, no.2, 1990, pp.259-68
8. Alec Nove, ‘"Allocational efficiency" – can it be so?’, Europe-Asia Studies, vol.43, no.3, 1991, pp.575-79
Cost of empire
9. Valerie Bunce, ‘The Empire Strikes Back: the evolution of the Eastern Bloc from a Soviet asset to a Soviet liability’, International Organization, vol.39, no.1, Winter 1985, pp.1-46
10. Dina Rome Spechler and Martin C. Spechler, ‘A reassessment of the burden of Eastern Europe on the USSR’, Europe-Asia Studies, vol.61, no.9, 2009, pp.1645-57
Perestroika
11. Vladimir Mau, ‘Perestroika: theoretical and political problems of economic reforms in the USSR’, Europe-Asia Studies, vol.47, no.3, 1995, pp.387-411
12. Michael Burawoy and Kathryn Hendley, ‘Between perestroika and privatisation: divided strategies and political crisis in a Soviet enterprise’, Soviet Studies, vol.44, no.3, 1992, pp.371-402
Volume II: From shock therapy to Putin
Shock therapy: what was it?
13. Sergei Sinelnikov-Murylev and Alexei Uluykaev, in Egor Gaidar (ed.), The Economics of Transition, MIT Press, Cambridge MA and London, 2003, chapter 3, pp.45-6
Big Bang versus gradualism
14. Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents, Allen Lane, London, 2002, chapter 5, pp.133-165, notes pp. 258- 261
15. Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman, Without a Map. Political tactics and economic reform in Russia, MIT Press, Cambridge MA and London, 2000, chapter 9, pp.175-84, notes pp. 204-205
Welfare consequences
16. Steven Rosefielde, ‘Premature deaths: Russia’s radical economic transition in Soviet perspective’, Europe-Asia Studies, vol.53, no.8, 2001, pp.1159-1176
17. Simon Commander, Andrei Tolstopiatenko, Ruslan Yemstov, ‘Channels of redistribution. Inequality and poverty in the Russian transition’, Economics of Transition, vol.7, no.2, 1999, pp.411-447
18. Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman, ‘A normal country’, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2004, pp.20-38 [NB full references and data sources at http://papers.nber.org/papers/w10057
Privatisation
19. Yurii Perevalov, Ilya Gimadii and Vladimir Dobrodei, ‘Does privatisation improve performance of industrial enterprises? Empirical evidence from Russia’, Post-Communist Economies, vol.12, no.3, 2000, pp.337-363
20. J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Almos Telegdy, ‘The productivity effects of privatisation: longitudinal estimates from Hungary, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine’, Journal of Political Economy, vol.114, no.1, 2006, pp.61-99
21. Derek C. Jones, ‘The economic effects of privatization: evidence from a Russian panel’, Comparative Economic Studies, vol.40, no.2, Summer 1998, pp.75-102
22. Daniel Treisman, ‘"Loans for shares" revisited’, Post-Soviet Affairs, vol.26, no.3, 2010, pp.207-227
23. Sergei Guriev and Andrei Rachinsky, ‘The role of oligarchs in Russian capitalism’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol.19, no.1, 2005, pp.131-150
Virtual economy
24. Clifford Gaddy and Barry W. Ickes, ‘An accounting model of the virtual economy in Russia’, Post-Soviet Geography and Economics, vol.40, no.2, 1999, pp.79-97
Putin – reform agenda and early performance
25. Anders Aslund, ‘Russia’s economic transformation under Putin’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, vol.46, no.6, 2004, pp.397-420 + Philip Hanson, ‘Putin and Russia’s economic transformation’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, vol.45, no.6, 2004, pp.421-28 + Marshall I. Goldman, ‘Anders in Wonderland: comments on Russia’s economic transformation under Putin’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, vol.45, no.6, pp.429-34 + Anders Aslund, ‘Putin’s second term is likely to differ from his first: a rebuttal’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, vol.45, no.6, 2004, pp.435-438
2008 and beyond
26. Silvana Malle, ‘Economic modernisation and diversification in Russia. Constraints and challenges’, Journal of Eurasian Studies, vol.4, 2013, pp.78-99
27. Vladimir Mau, ‘Challenges of Russian economic policy: modernisation or acceleration? (perestroika or uskorenie)’, Post-Communist Economies, vol.26, no.4, 2014, pp.437-458
Volume III: Recurring issues
Geographical issues
28. Allen C. Lynch, ‘Roots of Russia’s economic dilemmas: liberal economics and illiberal geography’, Europe-Asia Studies, vol.54, no.1, 2002, pp.31-49
29. Leslie Dienes, ‘Reflection on a geographic dichotomy: archipelago Russia’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, vol.43, no.6, 2002, 443-458
30. Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy, The Siberian Curse. How communist planners left Russia out in the cold, Brookings, Washington DC, 2003, chapter 3, pp.26-56
Institutions and the reform trap
31. Andrei Kuznetsov and Olga Kuznetsova, ‘Institutions, business and the state in Russia’, Europe-Asia Studies, vol.55, no.6, 2003, pp.907-922
32. Joel S. Hellman, ‘Winners take all: the politics of partial reform in postcommunist transitions’, World Politics, vol.50, no.2, 1998, pp.203-234
33. Leonid Polishchuk and Alexei Savvateev, ‘Spontaneous (non)emergency of property rights’, Economics of Transition, vol.12, no.1, 2004, pp.103-27
34. Karla Hoff and Joseph E. Stiglitz, ‘After the Big Bang? Obstacles to the emergence of the rule of law in post-communist societies’, American Economic Review, vol.94, no.3, 2004, pp.753-63
Rent addiction, resource curse, Dutch disease
35. Clifford G. Gaddy and Barry W. Ickes, ‘Putin’s rent management system and the future of addiction in Russia’, in S. Oxenstierna, The Challenges of Russia’s politicized economic system, Routledge, 2015, pp.11-32
36. Rudiger Ahrend, ‘Can Russia break the "resource curse"’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, vol.46, no.8, 2005, pp.584-609
37. Shinichiro Tabata, ‘Observations on Russian exposure to the Dutch Disease’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, vol.53, no.2, 2012, pp.231-43
38. Masaaki Kuboniwa, ‘Diagnosing the "Russian disease": growth and structure of the Russian economy’, Comparative Economic Studies, vol.54, no.1, 2012, pp.121-48
Fiscal and monetary policy
39. Antonio Spilimbergo, ‘Measuring the performance of fiscal policy in Russia’, Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, vol.43, no.6, November 2007, pp.25-44
40. Jacques Sapir, ‘What should Russian monetary policy be?’, Post-Soviet Affairs, vol.26, no.4, 2010, pp.342-72
Investment climate
41. Michael Rochlitz, ‘Corporate raiding and the role of the state in Russia’, Post-Soviet Affairs, vol.30, nos 2-3, 2014, pp.89-114
42. Philip Hanson, ‘Russia’s inward and outward foreign direct investment: insights into the economy’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, vol.51, no.5, 2010, pp.632-52
Competitiveness
43. Julian Cooper, ‘Can Russia compete in the global economy?’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, vol.47, no.4, 2006, pp.407-25
44. Shinichiro Tabata, ‘Observations on changes in Russia’s comparative advantage, 1994-2005’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, vol.47, no.6, 2006, pp.747-59
45. Rudiger Ahrend, ‘Russian industrial restructuring: trends in productivity, competitiveness and comparative advantage’, Post-Communist Economies, vol.18, no.3, September 2006, pp.277-95
Volume IV: Sectors
Agriculture
46. Stephen K. Wegren, ‘Private farming in Russia: an emerging success?’, Post-Soviet Affairs, vol.27, no.3, 2011, pp.211-40
47. Oane Visser, Max Spoor, Natalia Mamonova, ‘Is Russia the emerging global "breadbasket"? Re-cultivation, agroholdings and grain production’, Europe-Asia Studies, vol.66, no.10, 2014, pp.1589-1610
Defence industry
48. Julian Cooper, ‘The Russian economy twenty years after the end of the socialist economic system’, Journal of Eurasian Studies, vol.4, 2013, pp.55-64
49. Susanne Oxenstierna, ‘’Russia’s defense spending and the economic decline’, Journal of Eurasian Studies, vol.7, 2016, pp.60-70
Oil and gas
50. Michael Bradshaw, ‘The Kremlin, national champions and the international oil companies: the political economy of the Russian oil and gas industry’, Geopolitics of Energy, vol.31, no.5, 2009, pp.2-14
51. Nat Moser, ‘Ownership and enterprise performance in the Russian oil industry, 1992-2012’, Post-Communist Economies, vol.28, no.1, 2016, pp.72-86
Financial sector
52. Alexei Karas, Koen Schoors, Laurent Weill, ‘Are private banks more efficient than public banks?’, Economics of Transition, vol.18, no.1, 2010, pp.209-44
53. Erik Berglof and Alexander Lehmann, ‘Sustaining Russia’s growth: the role of financial reform’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 2, 2009, 198-206
54. Richard Connolly, ‘Financial constraints on the modernization of the Russian economy’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, vol.52, no.3, 2011, pp.428-59
Social sector
55. Judyth L. Twigg, ‘The cost of illness, disability, and premature mortality to Russia’s economy’, Eurasian Geography and Economics, vol.46, no.7, 2005, pp.495-524
56. Irina Denisova and Judith Shapiro, ‘Recent demographic developments in the Russian Federation’, in Michael Alexeev and Shlomo Weber, The Oxford Handbook of the Russian Economy, Oxford UP, NY, 2013, chapter 33, pp.800-25
Informal sector
57. Irina Olimpieva, ‘The changing contours of corruption in Russia: informal intermediaries in state-business relations’, East-West. Journal of economics and business, vol.13, no.2, 2010, pp.61-82
58. Byung-Yeon Kim, ‘The unofficial economy in Russia’, in Michael Alexeev and Shlomo Weber, The Oxford Handbook of the Russian Economy, Oxford UP, NY, 2013, chapter 11, pp.265-85
Regional sector
59. Rudiger Ahrend, ‘Speed of reform, initial conditions or political orientation? Explaining Russian regions’ economic performance’, Post-Communist Economies, vol.17, no.3, 2005, pp.289-317
60. Ulrich Thiessen, ‘Fiscal federalism in Russia: theory, comparisons, evaluations’, Post-Soviet Affairs, vol.22, no.3, 2006, pp.189-224
