Privatizing Russia

macroeconomics, Russia, privatizing, privatization

Hunting for Homo Sovieticus: Situational versus Attitudinal Factors in Economic Behavior

macroeconomics, Soviet Union, attitudinal, situational, economic behavior, Russia

How Does Privatization Work? Evidence from the Russian Shops

We use a survey of 452 Russian shops, most of which were privatized between 1992 and 1993, to measure the importance of alternative channels through which privatization promotes restructuring. Restructuring is measured as capital renovation, change in suppliers, increase in hours that stores stay open, and layoffs. There is strong evidence that the presence of new owners and new managers raises the likelihood of restructuring. In contrast, there is no evidence that equity incentives of old managers promote restructuring. The evidence points to the critical role that new human capital plays in economic transformation.

Popular Attitudes Towards Markets and Democracy: Russia and United States Compared 25 Years Later

We repeat a survey we did in the waning days of the Soviet Union (Shiller, Boycko and Korobov, AER 1991) comparing attitudes towards free markets between Moscow and New York. Additional survey questions, from Gibson Duch and Tedin (J. Politics 1992) are added to compare attitudes towards democracy. Two comparisons are made: between countries, and through time, to explore the existence of international differences in allegiance to democratic free-market institutions, and the stability of these differences. While we find some differences in attitudes towards markets across countries and through time, we do not find most of the differences large or significant. Our evidence does not support a common view that the Russian personality is fundamentally illiberal or non-democratic

Popular Attitudes Towards Free Markets: The Soviet Union and the United States Compared

Random samples of the Moscow and New York populations were compared in their attitudes towards free markets by administering identical telephone interviews in the two countries in May, 1990. Although the Soviet respondents were somewhat less likely to accept exchange of money as a solution to personal problems, and their attitudes towards business were less warm, we found that the Soviet and American respondents were basically similar in most dimensions. Soviets showed no difference from Americans in their feelings that price increases may be unfair. There appears to be little difference between the Soviets and Americans in their concern with income inequality, in their belief in the importance of providing material incentives for hard work, and in their understanding of the workings of markets

Corporate governance and firm efficiency: Evidence from China's publicly listed firms

This paper applies a two-stage, double bootstrapping data envelope analysis approach to investigate whether and to what extent various distinctive corporate governance practices affect productive efficiency in a sample of 461 publicly listed manufacturing firms in China between 1999 and 2002. We find that firm efficiency is negatively related to state ownership while positively related to public and employee share ownership. In addition, the relationship between ownership concentration and firm efficiency is U-shaped, indicating the presence of tunneling activities by the largest shareholder. Among three types of controlling shareholder, state exerts the most negative impact on firm efficiency, followed by state-owned legal entities. These results provide strong evidence that political interferences have reduced firm efficiency. It shows that the proportion of outside directors and the number of board meetings are positively associated with firm efficiency, suggesting that board of directors can be an effective internal governance mechanism. Furthermore, provincial market development, a proxy for the strength of external governance mechanism, is positively related to firm efficiency. Overall, our findings illustrate that restructuring state-owned enterprises via improvements in corporate governance has enhanced firm efficiency, but partial privatization without transfer of ownership and control from the state to the public remains a major source of inefficiency in corporate China. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.postprin

Russia’s Legal Transitions: Marxist Theory, Neoclassical Economics and the Rule of Law

We review the role of economic theory in shaping the process of legal change in Russia during the two transitions it experienced during the course of the twentieth century: the transition to a socialist economy organised along the lines of state ownership of the means of production in the 1920s, and the transition to a market economy which occurred after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Despite differences in methodology and in policy implications, Marxist theory, dominant in the 1920s, and neoclassical economics, dominant in the 1990s, offered a similarly reductive account of law as subservient to wider economic forces. In both cases, the subordinate place accorded to law undermined the transition process. Although path dependence and history are frequently invoked to explain the limited development of the rule of law in Russia during the 1990s, policy choices driven by a deterministic conception of law and economics also played a role.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40803-015-0012-

Popular Attitudes Towards Free Markets: The Soviet Union and the United States Compared

Random samples of the Moscow' and New York populations were compared in their attitudes towards free markets by administering identical telephone interviews in the two countries in May, 1990. Although the Soviet respondents were somewhat less likely to accept exchange of money as a solution to personal problems, and their attitudes towards business were less warm, we found that the Soviet and American respondents were basically similar in most dimensions. Soviets showed no difference from Americans on their feelings that price increases may be unfair. There appears to be little difference between the Soviets and Americans in their concern with income inequality, in their belief in the importance of providing material incentives for hard work, and in their understanding of the workings of markets.

The Response of State-Owned Enterprises to Import Competition: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms

We examine the wage and employment impact on Chinese firms of an increase in import competition associated with China’s WTO accession in December 2001, with an emphasis on state-owned enterprises (SOEs). We find that both wage and employment are negatively impacted by an increase in import competition, but firms with high state ownership cut employment less and reduce wages more than their private counterparts, suggesting that they prioritize the protection of employment over that of wages. This finding supports the notion that SOEs may have “multitask” responsibilities in terms of protecting employment as well as achieving efficiency. We also find that firms with higher capital intensity reduce their wages less but cut employment more in response to intensified import competition. This provides empirical support for the efficiency wage theory

prior shared experience and survival of spin-offs from restructured state enterprises

Many organizations, especially in emerging economies, trace their origins to restructured state enterprises, and this study explores the implications of such origins for organizational adaptation to changing environmental conditions. We compare the activity choices and survival chances of spin-offs from restructured state enterprises with those of de novo organizations. We argue that prior shared experience of spin-offs’ managers and employees facilitates the redeployment of routines developed in parent state enterprises. This should predispose spin-offs to pursue familiar activities, but this choice is not completely predetermined, and its survival implications depend on the environmental conditions. Our empirical findings suggest that spin-offs from restructured state enterprises are less likely to engage in new activities than de novo organizations. However, those restructuring spin-offs that do engage in new activities before the regulatory regime shift significantly improve their survival chances after the shift. Moreover, we find that the detrimental effect of the regulatory regime shift and the beneficial effect of engaging in new activities are stronger for spin-offs from restructured state enterprises than for de novo organizations.authorsversionpublishe