This paper benchmarks the efficiency of public expenditure in the social sectors in the Russian Federation relative to other countries and among the country''s regions. It finds that there is substantial room for efficiency gains, particularly in health care and social protection, although less...

Putting the pension system on a sustainable footing arguably remains the biggest challenge in Russia''s economic policies. The debate about the policy options was hitherto constrained by the absence of general equilibrium analysis. This paper fills this gap by simulating their macroeconomic...

We exploit historical and contemporaneous variation in local credit markets across Russia to identify the impact of credit constraints on firm-level innovation. We find that access to bank credit helps firms to adopt existing products and production processes that are new to them. They introduce...

We exploit historical and contemporaneous variation in local credit markets across Russia to identify the impact of credit constraints on firm-level innovation. We find that access to bank credit helps firms to adopt existing products and production processes that are new to them. They introduce...