This paper analyzes economic policies in resource rich countries and various mechanisms of resource curse leading to a potentially inefficient use of resources. Arguments are provided in favor of "conditional resource curse" hypothesis: resource abundance hampers growth if institutions of a...

One of the main obstacles for successful economic development is the formation of institutional traps, inefficient yet stable norms of behaviour. Domination of barter exchange, arrears, corruption and black market activities are examples of institutional traps that have hampered reforms in...

The Russian labor market was characterized with three main features: a weak sensitivity of employment levels to changing conditions, a high variability of wage, large inter-firm flows of labor resources. This paper recommends a model of a collective firm explaining these phenomena. The main...

This is the first part of the research devoted to the problem of the choice of institutional reform strategies. A strategy is defined as a planned trajectory of institutional changes in time. Three types of strategies are compared: shock therapy, gradual growing, and interim institution...

Transplantation of institutions is an important part of reforms in many developing and transition economies. However, principles and methods of transplantation are not developed and therefore many transplantation attempts failed. This is a case for numerous projects of accelerated building the...

The economic "battle" that took place in Russia in 1992 consisted of the struggle between the liberally-oriented government and the labor collectives, the latter of which regarded the government's reform program as an attempt to encroach upon the established system of collective property. The...

Using state-industry data for 1981-98, the paper examines the Rajan-Zingales (1998) hypothesis at the country level. In particular, we examine whether industrial characteristics influence state-level industrial growth. The findings suggest that industries with higher fixed capital and bigger...

We develop a strategy for building mass mortgage financing in Russia based on the transplantation of a modified institution of Contractual Savings for Housing (CSH) and on the control upon its evolution. Rationality of the proposed decision is justified by analysis of mortgage institutions...

The study investigates the effects of activities of financial institutions (FIs). In particular, an econometric study has been undertaken to examine the ‘supply-leading’ and ‘demand-following’ characteristics of FI activities. The investigation is conducted by employing time series data...

Sachs, Warner (1995) were among the first to claim that «resource curse» is real and that resource abundant economies do indeed grow more slowly than the others. Hundreds of papers were published since then supporting the «resource curse» thesis and offering new explanations of mechanisms...