403 research outputs found
Regional integration in Central Asia: A firm-centered view
No full textRegional integration remains among the main topics of international discourse in Central Asia, though the progress of international cooperation is very limited. Our aim is to understand the connection between the organization of economic institutions in Central Asia and the regional integration. The existing literature has explored the state level of integration in great detail: varying from rational choice explanations of security dilemma to the studies of social construction of the region in Central Asia. This paper, however, provides a firm-centered perspective on the regional integration. Thus, it first considers how varieties of political economies of Central Asian countries influence the regionalization process in the region through economic networks established by private actors, and how institutions are shaped by regionalization. Second, it considers how political institutions determine the impact of informal networks on formal regional integration initiatives, and looks at the potential effect of formal regionalism on regionalization process in Central Asia.Regionalization, informal integration, transition
Replication Data for: The Two-Pronged Middle Class: The Old Bourgeoisie, New State-Engineered Middle Class and Democratic Development
No full textThe dataset contains the replication material for "The Two-Pronged Middle Class: The Old Bourgeoisie, New State-Engineered Middle Class and Democratic Development". The project investigates the democratic role of the middle classes. It argues that it in many contexts it is important to distinguish between the autonomous middle class emerging through gradual capitalist development and the state-induced middle class created by the authoritarian regime. The anylsis is conducted using historical and contemporary data from the Russian Federation: sub-national (district-level and oblast-level) data, as well as results of an original survey
Replication Data for: The Two-Pronged Middle Class: The Old Bourgeoisie, New State-Engineered Middle Class and Democratic Development
No full textThe dataset contains the replication material for "The Two-Pronged Middle Class: The Old Bourgeoisie, New State-Engineered Middle Class and Democratic Development". The project investigates the democratic role of the middle classes. It argues that it in many contexts it is important to distinguish between the autonomous middle class emerging through gradual capitalist development and the state-induced middle class created by the authoritarian regime. The anylsis is conducted using historical and contemporary data from the Russian Federation: sub-national (district-level and oblast-level) data, as well as results of an original survey. The dataset contains both Stata dta and do files and the full text of statistical appendix with numerous robustness checks corroborating the results of the study
Economic role of public administration in Central Asia: Decentralization and hybrid political regime
No full textThe aim of the paper is to understand how the organization of public administration in Central Asia shapes the results of economic development in the region. It discusses the main factors of bad quality of public administration in the region, paying particular attention to the link between political regimes and public administration. Moreover, it provides an overview of decentralization and devolution of power in Central Asian countries as one of the main channels of transformation of administration. The paper covers both formal decentralization and informal distribution of power between levels of government.Public administration, hybrid regimes, decentralization
Replication Data for: Encouraged to Cheat? Federal Incentives and Career Concerns at the Sub-National Level as Determinants of Under-Reporting of COVID-19 Mortality in Russia
No full textReplication file (datasets and do files) for: Encouraged to Cheat? Federal Incentives and Career Concerns at the Sub-National Level as Determinants of Under-Reporting of COVID-19 Mortality in Russi
Economic Reforms in Ukraine in Comparative Perspective: Formal and Informal Dimensions
No full textAlexander Libman and Anastassia Obydenkova set out inductively to identify the countries whose economies are most similar to Ukraine’s using a hierarchical cluster analysis of indicators of the micro-level institutions, such as obtaining permits, registering property, and enforcing contracts. This analysis indicates that in terms of formal institutions, Ukraine performs like a country of southeastern Europe, while in informal terms, it looks more like the other post-Soviet states. While the formal institutional environment in Ukraine has improved, perceptions of the business climate have worsened. This highlights the disconnect between formal institutions and informal practices. They stress that government cannot directly change informal practices—it can only change formal rules or personnel.</p
Government-Business Relations and Catching Up Reforms in the CIS
No full textThe paper addresses the problem of similarities and divergence of transition paths at the later stage of transition in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The main aim is to clarify the influence of specifics of government-business relations on economic reforms carried out at the later stage of transition in countries, which have been relatively less successful during the earlier transition. The paper discusses potential channels of influence of institutional organization of government-business relations on economic reforms and compares government-business relation models and paths of transition in Russia, Kazakhstan and UkrainePost-Soviet economies, catching up reforms, institutional trap, government-business relations
Constitutions, Regulations, and Taxes: Contradictions of Different Aspects of Decentralization
No full textThe paper confronts different aspects of decentralization: fiscal decentralization, post-constitutional regulatory decentralization, and constitutional decentralization – using a single dataset from Russian Federation of the Yeltsin period as a politically asymmetric country. It finds virtually no correlation between different decentralization aspects; moreover, three processes of devolution appearing in the same country at the same time seem to be driven by different (though partly overlapping) forces. Hence, a specific aspect of decentralization is hardly able to serve as a proxy for another one or for the overall decentralization process.constitutions; deregulation; decentralization; fiscal decentralization; administrative decentralization; devolution
Eurasia and Eurasian Integration: Beyond the Post-Soviet Borders
No full text‘Eurasia’ seems to be a relatively clear concept in terms of physical geography, but much less so for social sciences. While the word ‘Eurasia’ is constantly used in various contexts (more today than twenty years ago), the specific notion of what it actually means is unclear. According to Laruele (2008), the term ‘Eurasian’ was actually invented in the 19th century to refer to children of mixed European-Asian couples, and it was later used to highlight the geological unity of the continent. Throughout the last two decades, Eurasia has been more and more commonly used by both scholars and practitioners, but the definition of the term remained unclear. It goes even to a greater extent for the concept of ‘Eurasian integration’ – which is, in fact, what this yearbook (and the companion Journal of Eurasian Economic Integration, which is published in Russian) is devoted to. This paper intends to elaborate on the concept of Eurasia and Eurasian integration, distinguishing between three notions of ‘Eurasia’ and corresponding views of Eurasian integration, considering their importance in the literature and possible research developments. The ideas presented in this paper heavily draw from the discussion in our book, published in English as Vinokurov and Libman (2012a) and in Russian as Vinokurov and Libman (2012b)
Institutional competition in the post-Soviet space
No full textInstitutional competition is often discussed as an instrument of market creation and preservation in transition and development economies. The post-Soviet space offers an interesting case study for the analysis of this problem: increasing international investment flows and absent policy coordination establish an environment for intensification of institutional competition among jurisdictions. Nevertheless, in the post-Soviet world the quality of institutions seems to remain low. This paper deals with potential effects of interjurisdictional competition on institutional quality in the post-Soviet space while addressing two levels of analysis: rational choice factors (economic inequality and learning effects) and interplay of formal and informal institutions (perception of free markets, trust to the public authority and interaction of deep and shallow institutional levels).Institutional competition, demand for bad institutions, formal and informal institutions
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