Russia: Political Determinants of Economic Reforms

This project, led by CASE and the Institute for the Economy in Transition (IET), was a part of an international GDN project entitled "Understanding Reform."

Research on "Russia: Political Determinants of Economic Reforms" was carried out by Marek Dabrowski, Irina Sinitsyna, Rafal Antczak and Alexei Shapovalov (CASE) and Vladimir Mau, Konstantin Yanovskiy and Sergey Zhavoronkov (IET) and covered the period from 1985-2005, focusing on the political and social determinants of economic reform in Russia and its results. The paper published within the project (CASE Network Report No. 56), provides a short history of the Soviet/ Russian political and economic reforms and presents a broad set of economic, social and institutional indicators designed to illustrate the effects of the reform process. The study tests several hypotheses related to the role of domestic crises in triggering reforms. It also analyzes the role of external factors such as oil prices, foreign aid, international financial markets and institutions as well as the experiences of other countries in shaping the reform process. Other hypotheses are related to organization of a pro-reform political constituency, the role of speed and sequencing of a reform process and interdependence of democratization and market reforms.

Project findings were published in a volume entitled "Understanding Market Reforms" by the Palgrave Macmillan in October 2006 [read more]