Throughout much of the world, corruption in the civil service undermines state capacity, impedes economic development, and saps citizens' morale. But while its pernicious effects are widely recognized, the roots of corruption remain poorly understood. Whereas most studies on corruption's origins...

We analyse the professional community of attorneys in Russia in order to understand their potential for collective action in an imperfect institutional environment. In 2013 we conducted a survey of 372 attorneys in 9 regions of Russia. Two main hypotheses are tested: 1) lawyers with strong...

In private and public sectors, employees and bureaucrats often found themselves bounded by the strict regulation. Being unable to achieve the prescribed KPI under the current regulation, they violate the formal rules. While such deviations are considered a negative phenomenon in most studies,...

In the 2000s the Russian government considered electronic auctions (e-auctions) as the best way to procure goods for public needs. In this paper we confirm this proposition using an empirical dataset of contracts for the procurement of granulated sugar in Russia in 2011. Our data shows that unit...

The reform of budget-sector entities enables us to compare the impact of different types of public procurement regulations in budget and autonomous organizations in Russia. Such analysis is important in light of the critical discussion of the effects of current procurement regulation (94-FL), as...

In this paper, we analyze the influence of the state on the improvement of corporate governance in Russia of the early 2000s. Taking into account the low quality of market institutions in the 1990s (i.e., the market failure phenomenon), we assume that state intervention as the "second best"...

The paper is the first analysis of the competitiveness of Russian enterprises from the perspective of value chains, with a focus on the example of tube & pipe and furniture producers. In both industries, Russian firms enjoy an advantage on the raw material side. Nevertheless, the overall...

This paper discusses Russia's "black cash" economy.Using interviews and survey data, we examine the mechanics of several distinctly Russian tax evasion schemes and attempt a rough estimate of the scale and dynamics involved in tax evasion based on black cash.Entrepreneurs' opinions are also used...

In this paper, we analyze the influence of the state on the improvement of corporate governance in Russia of the early 2000s. Taking into account the low quality of market institutions in the 1990s (i.e., the market failure phenomenon), we assume that state intervention as the "second best"...

Using data from a 2009 survey of 957 manufacturing enterprises, this paper examines relations between the state and business as well as priority differences in the distribution of governmental support by federal, regional and local authorities. Regression analysis reveals that a "model of...