Motivated by the recent experience in the Russian Federation, this paper examines the implications of imposing central control on the budgetary activities of a subnational government. In a highly stylised multi-task principal-agent model (Holmstrom and Milgrom (1991)), a central government...

Studies of the determinants of entrepreneurship have emphasized three distinct perspectives: market institutions, social networks and personal characteristics. Using data from a pilot survey with over 2,000 interviews in 7 cities across Russia, we find evidence for a particularly strong effect...

We compare the results from a survey of 900 entrepreneurs in China and Russia. Compared to a sample of 1,000 non-entrepreneurs, Chinese and Russian entrepreneurs have more family members and childhood friends who started their own businesses. They also have higher wealth ambitions and value work...