DOI: 10.32609/j.ruje.12.171619

Authors: Aleksei A. Popov

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of economic reforms in the USSR and the Comecon countries, in particular the Kosygin reform (1965), on the development of a system of international economic comparisons in 1962–1969. Using previously unpublished archival materials from Comecon and Soviet statistical agencies, the author shows that reform initiatives stimulated methodological innovations, such as purchasing power parity (PPP) comparisons. However, institutional conflicts, ideological constraints, and technological limitations hindered the system’s integration into global practice, notably the UN International Comparison Program (ICP). The article argues that, despite partial successes, the stagnation of the project after 1969 reflected deeper systemic deficiencies within planned economies, including bureaucratic inertia and unresolved competition among research centers.

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DOI: 10.32609/j.ruje.12.171595

Authors: Aleksandr A. Fokin, Nikita Y. Pivovarov, David Brandenberger

Abstract: This article reinterprets the Third Program of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) in 1961 as a rational, auditable social contract for the Soviet one-party state rather than a utopian manifesto. Reconstructing its Stalin-era prehistory—from drafts by Dmitry Manuilsky, Mark Mitin, Pavel Yudin, and Andrei Zhdanov between 1938 and 1947 to those generated under Nikita Khrushchev between 1958 and 1961—we show how successive elites translated ideological rivalry with the West into a ledger of quantifiable welfare obligations (expressed in per capita food, housing, goods, and the duration of the working day). The program’s distinctive function took shape within the traditional context of foundational Soviet documents: constitutions which codified the status quo and party programs that projected a development path for 20–30 years into the future. Under Khrushchev, academic economists “scientized” this practice, elevating consumption indicators and “scientifically grounded norms” to the core of a national strategy for the USSR: “communism in the main” by 1980. Conceptually, the program operated as an authoritarian commitment to build a socialist welfare state—a self-binding social contract that stabilized the post-Stalin transition but also generated path dependence, constraining later reform efforts. Empirically, we document the program’s internal tensions (communal services vs. individual household needs; socialist ethics vs. personal ownership) and its comparative ambitions (to catch up and overtake the United States in per capita welfare). The result is a reframing of Soviet modernity as a project in which technocratic calculation, welfare egalitarianism, and Cold War benchmarking were fused into a pragmatic, auditable program of one-party rule.

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DOI: 10.32609/j.ruje.11.156897

Authors: Svetlana B. Avdasheva, Islam Z. Geliskhanov

Abstract: Transaction cost economics (TCE) and the theory of governance structures developed by Oliver Williamson have demonstrated significant explanatory power across institutional economics, law and economics, public policy, and strategic management. This review evaluates the predictive potential of TCE in light of profound changes in industry organization and market design, focusing on its relevance to reform processes. We compare two major historical experiences: the liberalization of infrastructure network industries (electricity, gas, rail, and telecommunications) and the privatization of state-owned enterprises in post-socialist economies, with particular attention to Russia. While the reform trajectories differed, both cases reveal the risks of neglecting asset specificity, institutional constraints, and transaction hazards, which are core concepts in TCE. Where reforms evolved through adaptive governance and coordinated institutional development, outcomes were more resilient and efficient. In contrast, rushed transitions lacking governance capacity produced systemic inefficiencies. Drawing from these experiences, we explore emerging challenges in the regulation of digital platforms and ecosystems. We argue that digitalization alters transaction costs, expands strategic interdependencies, and gives rise to hybrid forms of platform governance. These developments underscore the need to reinterpret past lessons for new institutional contexts, particularly in areas such as labor classification, competition policy, and algorithmic regulation.

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DOI: 10.32609/j.ruje.8.72689

Authors: Irina E. Kalabikhina, Sofia M. Rebrey

Abstract: This research aims to identify major fields and structures of economics of gender research based on bibliometric analysis between 1960 and 2020. The analysis of the journals in economics of gender captures major development stages of gender economics. The study of economics of gender is growing rapidly as seen in the increasing number of journals, articles and citations from the 1970s onwards. It grew faster than the pace of economic publications during the 1980–1990s. The economics of gender research disciplines largely replicates economics and can be viewed as part of economics of inequality. But its feminist philosophy and methodology distinguish the economics of gender as a separate branch of economic sciences which furnishes new findings. According to the Scimago and Web of Science databases, more than 90% of articles in economics of gender are published in English (fewer than in the field of economics in general). The structure of the analyzed countries reflects not only the sophistication of national research in economics of gender, but also the degree of their integration into international scientific discourse, including the presence of a language barrier. Gender economists are primarily focused on the problems of developing countries. Advanced economies account for less than a third of all publications.

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DOI: 10.32609/j.ruje.7.72368

Authors: Aizhan Bolatbayeva

Abstract: This paper introduces a multicountry macroeconometric model for the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The model consists of five single-country models of the union member states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. The purpose of the research is to explain the structural relationship between the economies, evaluate the impact of internal and external shocks, and analyze the transmission mechanism of shocks across countries. The single-country models are linked to each other by the equations of bilateral trade and bilateral exchange rate. We find that the model fits actual data on main macroeconomic indicators of the countries in a dynamic ex-post simulation over 2004–2018. We also evaluate the effect of world trade and monetary policy shocks on the economies of the EAEU member states.

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DOI: 10.32609/j.ruje.7.58034

Authors: Harald Hagemann

Abstract: Wassily Leontief jun. (1905–1999) moved to Berlin in April 1925 after getting his first academic degree from the University of Leningrad. In Berlin he mainly studied with Werner Sombart and Ladislaus von Bortkiewicz who were the referees of his Ph.D. thesis “The economy as a circular flow” (1928). From spring 1927 until April 1931 Leontief was a member of the research staff at the Kiel Institute of World Economics, interrupted by the period from April 1929 to March 1930 when he was an advisor to the Chinese Ministry of Railroads. In the journal of the Kiel Institute, Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, Leontief had already published his first article “Die Bilanz der russischen Volkswirtschaft. Eine methodologische Untersuchung” [The balance of the Russian economy. A methodological investigation] in 1925. In Kiel Leontief primarily worked on the statistical analysis of supply and demand curves. Leontief’s method triggered a fierce critique by Ragnar Frisch, which launched a heavy debate on “pitfalls” in the construction of supply and demand curves. The debate started in Germany but was continued in the USA where Leontief became a researcher at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in summer 1931. The Leontief–Frisch controversy culminated in the Quarterly Journal of Economics (1934), published by Harvard University, where Leontief made his subsequent career from 1932–1975. His later analysis of the employment consequences of technological change in the 1980s had some roots in his Kiel period.

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DOI: 10.32609/j.ruje.7.57963

Authors: Denis V. Melnik

Abstract: The paper provides an interpretation of Lenin’s earliest contributions (made in 1893–1899) to the study of economic development. In the 1890s, Lenin joined young Marxist intellectuals in their fight against the Narodnik economists, who represented the approach prevalent among the Russian radical intelligentsia in the 1870s–1880s. That was the fight over the right to control the Marxist narrative in Russia. Lenin elaborated his theoretical interpretation of Marxism as applied to the contentious issues of Russia’s economic development. The paper outlines the context of Lenin’s activity in the 1890s. It suggests that the main theoretical challenge to “orthodox Marxist” intellectuals in applying Marx’s theory to Russia stemmed not from their designated opponents, but from Marx himself, who presented two divergent scenarios — the dynamic and the breakdown — for capitalist development. Lenin provided an analytical substantiation for the dynamic one but eventually allowed for consideration of structural heterogeneity in the development process. This resulted in the notion of unevenness, on which he would rely upon later, in his studies of imperialism. The paper also briefly considers the place of Lenin’s early development studies in his legacy.

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DOI: 10.32609/j.ruje.7.56826

Authors: Natalia A. Makasheva

Abstract: This article addresses Kondratiev’s approach to the problems of economic dynamics, cycle and conjuncture in the context of a new methodological agenda which was formulated in the 1920’s in Europe and the USA by representatives of the “brilliant generation of economists,” mostly members of the econometric movement and its adherents among Russian economists. A distinguishing feature of this generation was that its representatives were striving to make economics an objective science penetrated by rigorous ways of thinking and based on a unification between the theoretical quantitative and the empirical quantitative approaches to the study of economic phenomena. This paper discusses Kondratiev’s project on the general theory of economic dynamics as an embodiment of that methodological agenda. It also highlights a free exchange of ideas between Kondratiev and economists from different countries as a breeding ground for the emergence of the project and a necessary condition for its implementation.

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DOI: 10.32609/j.ruje.7.66257

Authors: Vladimir S. Avtonomov

Abstract: The paper serves as an introduction to the RuJE special issue on the circulation of economic ideas between Russia and the West. This circulation is a contentious issue, especially among Russian economists. In this article a specific pattern of West–Russia–West transfer is investigated. The pattern suggests that experiencing strong influence from the West, leading Russian economists developed and modified Western economic theories, adapting them to specific Russian political, ideological and cultural circumstances. As a result, they exerted a certain influence over the next generations of Western economists. Among these circumstances the paper mentions moral and religious factors, the peasant question, the special influence of Marxism, the development of mathematics and statistics in Russia in the 1890s–1920s, and the unique experience of building a planned economy.

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DOI: 10.32609/j.ruje.7.55458

Authors: Vladimir S. Avtonomov

Abstract: In this article, a specific pattern of West–Russia–West transfer in economic thought is described using two early cases from the 19th century. This pattern suggests that experiencing strong influence from the West, leading Russian economists developed and modified Western economic theories, adapting them to specific Russian political, ideological and cultural circumstances. As a result, they exerted a certain influence upon the next generations of Western economists. Two concrete examples are described: Smith–Storch–List (dealing with the theory of inner goods) and Haxthausen–Chernyshevsky–Marx (dealing with the problem of obshina — Russian rural commons).

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DOI: 10.32609/j.ruje.7.55686

Authors: François Allisson

Abstract: Mikhail Tugan‑Baranovsky was one of the most prolific Russian economists at the turn of the 19–20th centuries. His thought was largely influenced by Western ideas, like most of his fellow Russian economists. But Tugan‑Baranovsky’s theories in turn also influenced Western economic thought to an unprecedented extent. Tugan‑Baranovsky’s Western legacy is first reflected on, before we examine the West’s reception of two of his works: “Industrial crises in England” (1894) and “Theoretical foundations of Marxism” (1905). We compare the conception of these works vis-à-vis their intended audience, and their reception in the international context of the circulation of ideas, so as to define Tugan‑Baranovsky’s relationship with the West.

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DOI: 10.32609/j.ruje.6.47009

Authors: Aizhan Bolatbayeva, Alisher Tolepbergen, Nurdaulet Abilov

Abstract: The paper outlines a structural macroeconometric model for the economy of Russia. The aim of the research is to analyze how the domestic economy functions, generate forecasts for important macroeconomic indicators and evaluate the responses of main endogenous variables to various shocks. The model is estimated based on quarterly data starting from 2001 to 2019. The majority of the equations are specified in error correction form due to the non-stationarity of variables. Stochastic simulation is used to solve the model for expost and ex-ante analysis. We compare forecasts of the model with forecasts generated by the VAR model. The results indicate that the present model outperforms the VAR model in terms of forecasting GDP growth, inflation rate and unemployment rate. We also evaluate the responses of main macroeconomic variables to VAT rate and world trade shocks via stochastic simulation. Finally, we generate ex-ante forecasts for the Russian economy under the baseline assumptions.

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DOI: 10.32609/j.ruje.5.35485

Authors: Leonid M. Grigoryev, Victoria A. Pavlyushina

Abstract: The study of economic growth and social inequality goes back to the works of S. Kuznets, A. Atkinson, P. Krugman, J. Stiglitz, T. Piketti, and B. Milanovic. Statistical analysis of social inequalities for a large set of countries, divided into seven clusters, was conducted for the period 2000–2016. The share of incomes of the 10th decile was used as a measure of inequality. The hypothesis of the positive impact of economic growth on the reduction of social inequality was tested. Stylized facts on an array of 106 countries for the period under review indicate a high degree of stability of the level of inequality in most groups, especially in the most developed countries, and in particular in the Anglo-Saxon ones. The distribution of key socioeconomic and even political indicators for clusters shows their strong relationship with the structure of cluster inequality. This makes it possible to significantly deepen the analysis, in particular the one concerning the stages of world development.

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DOI: 10.3897/j.ruje.4.33621

Authors: Victor Polterovich

Abstract: A new approach to understanding social and economic development is proposed, based on consideration of the evolution of coordination mechanisms. The work consists of two parts. In the first part, a critical analysis of four recently proposed theories of social development, focusing on geographical, institutional or cultural factors, is given. These theories have greatly enriched our understanding of the evolution of society, however, as analysis shows, none of them provides a satisfactory description of the driving forces and mechanisms of this evolution; the main reason is rooted in their common deficiency — monocausality. It is proposed to distinguish between two types of development, catching up and leading. The basic ideas of the theory of catching up development are presented. This approach makes it possible to explain the phenomenon of the “economic miracle” as a result of mutually conditioned changes in culture, institutions, technological progress and well-being in the context of interaction of competition, power and collaboration mechanisms. The second part is devoted to the theory of leading socioeconomic development. It is shown how in Western Europe, as a result of the interaction of the above four factors, specific forms and combinations of the three main mechanisms of coordination — competition, power and collaboration — emerged at each stage of evolution. I emphasize the importance of ideology and the phenomenon of technical progress in the formation of institutions of economic and political competition that contributed to the creation of the welfare state. These changes and economic growth created the conditions for further transformation of civil culture: increasing levels of trust, tolerance, altruism and cosmopolitanism, expanding the planning horizon. The decrease in the level of coercion built into the mechanisms of power and competition are demonstrated as well as the expansion of the role of collaboration. A hypothesis is advanced that the speed of this process depends on geographical factors. The idea of the welfare world is discussed.

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DOI: 10.3897/j.ruje.4.30171

Authors: Rostislav Kapeliushnikov

Abstract: The paper summarizes main recent sociological, epistemological, methodological and ideological trends in modern economics and tries to evaluate its current state and further perspectives. Special attention has been paid to a change in economists’ methodological ideal: economic science began with trying to become like physics but actually has become like medical statistics. The paper’s general conclusion is that what we are witnessing today in modern economics is simply an ordinary working state rather than a triumph or a crisis. However, that state is not very promising since the period of new large theoretical ideas seems to be over for economics, the new atheoretical tendency in it is becoming stronger and in the very near future, economics is most likely to become more and more interventionist.

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DOI: 10.3897/j.ruje.4.26002

Authors: Vladimir Avtonomov, Natalia Makasheva

Abstract: Dissemination and adoption of Western economic ideas in Russia have never been a simple process, always bearing marks of the socio-political and ideological circumstances of the country and inner processes in economics, as well as marks of the national intellectual tradition in general. It is not surprising that the history of Austrian economics in Russia was akin to a long road with many windings and turns. We can distinguish three different periods, or waves, each of them rather complex: from the 1890s until the late 1920s (introduction and, to a certain degree, adoption and criticism), from the beginning of the 1930s until the mid-1980s (hostile attitude and ignorance), and from the mid-1980s onwards (rediscovery, dissemination, and adoption).

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DOI: 10.3897/j.ruje.4.26005

Authors: Nikolay Nenovsky, Pencho Penchev

Abstract: The main goal of this study is to highlight the acceptance, dissemination, interpretation, criticism and make some attempts at contributing to Austrian economics made in Bulgaria during the last 120 years. We consider some of the main characteristics of the Austrian school, such as subjectivism and marginalism, as basic components of the economic thought in Bulgaria and as incentives for the development of some original theoretical contributions. Even during the first few years of Communist regime (1944–1989), with its Marxist monopoly over intellectual life, the Austrian school had some impact on the economic thought in the country. Subsequent to the collapse of Communism, there was a sort of a Renaissance and rediscovery of this school. Another contribution of our study is that it illustrates the adaptability and spontaneous evolution of ideas in a different and sometimes hostile environment.

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DOI: 10.3897/j.ruje.4.26006

Authors: Antonio Magliulo

Abstract: Nowadays the Austrian School enjoys high reputation in Italy: books by Mises, Hayek and other Austrian economists are constantly republished and reviewed with great interest, both inside and outside academic circles. The situation was very different decades ago, when just a few Italian economists devoted attention to the Austrian School. This work studies the reception of Austrian Economics in Italy, from the beginning to our days, so as to bring out, by way of comparison, relevant features of Italian economic culture. We will try to offer just an overview of the entire story, in an attempt to provide useful elements for a deeper analysis of further topics and periods.

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DOI: 10.3897/j.ruje.4.26001

Authors: Gilles Campagnolo

Abstract: The father of the “Austrian” Marginalist revolution and founder of the so-called “Austrian School of economics”, Carl Menger, had a mixed reception during different periods of development of French economics. Somewhat welcomed in the early days, he was rather forgotten later on. Even his major works were not published in translation until recently. What is the reason for such a situation? Criticisms of classical political economy have to be understood in their French context. In comparison to other countries, this paper details the case of France, besides showing how later Austrians, such as Friedrich Hayek, found a limited audience. This comparative study of economic ideas in France must start with the reception of the views of the founder and the role and impact of adopting/adapting or rejecting his views by French scholars. What place did they find in French academia? From Carl Menger to a “Frenchified” Charles Menger, how was Austrian economic thought disseminated in France? This essay starts by recalling the Belle-Époque and an astonishing letter by Charles Rist for the Jubiläum of Menger, in which he deplored the lack of translation of the latter’s works. The Austrian School in France is then discussed as pure economics replaces political economy in the Interwar period, with the 1938 Paris Congress of “liberal thinkers,” as the Vienna Circle became known, also comparing issues in philosophy. The paper considers how Austrian theories of “pure science” were received in Paris from the Vienna of the 1900s, at a time of ”Crossroads,” to the present day, through the Postwar and Cold War, until a revival since the 1990s and a rethinking of economic ideas after 2008.

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DOI: 10.1016/j.ruje.2017.09.001

Authors: Alexey Kudrin, Ilya Sokolov

Abstract: The paper discusses fiscal policy parameters through 2024. The suggested way to ensure long-term fiscal stability is stabilizing both the general government revenues and expenditures as percentages of GDP at levels differing by the public debt service payments and then applying a new version of the fiscal rule. The redistribution of fiscal spending from unproductive to productive areas (primarily investment in human and physical capital) is considered to boost economic growth. The possible use of additional spending on education, public health, and transport systems is presented, as is the optimization of expenditures in nonproductive areas.

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DOI: 10.1016/j.ruje.2017.06.002

Authors: Alexander Abramov, Alexander Radygin, Revold Entov, Maria Chernova

Abstract: This study examines the influence of state participation in the ownership structure of companies on their financial efficiency using a sample of 114 largest companies in Russia. As an indirect indicator of efficiency, we used a variety of financial indicators: revenue per employee (gross margin), return on equity, profit margin and debt burden. The effects of direct and indirect state ownership are considered separately. Using econometric analysis, we conclude that the dominance of the block of shares owned by the state has a negative effect on the performance characteristics, and its increase is associated with an increase in the debt burden of the companies. According to our criteria, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) perform worse on average than private companies. The mechanism of how changes in the “real sector” affect profitability is examined particularly closely. The study shows that a change in the profitability of private companies is characterized by a significant dependence on the movement of labor productivity characteristics. At the same time, for SOEs, a similar correlation was not revealed. These companies demonstrated no visible relationship between their profitability and performance characteristics. The study shows that increases in the size of direct government ownership lead to lower labor productivity and profitability; the impact of indirect ownership is, seemingly, more complicated.

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DOI: 10.1016/j.ruje.2017.02.001

Authors: Alexander Abramov, Alexander Radygin, Maria Chernova

Abstract: This article analyzes the ownership structure of state-owned companies and their role in the Russian economy. Using a sample of 114 of the largest Russian companies, we estimated direct and indirect state participation as a percentage of shareholdings for direct and indirect federal property during the time period of 2006–2014. We used two methods to estimate the role of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which allowed us to compare our results with OECD and Rosstat statistics for a broader sample of Russian companies owned by the public sector. This study revealed a decline in SOEs’ share in the capitalization of the Russian stock market and a slight increase in their share of total revenues and employment. The results indicated that public SOEs demonstrated significantly higher productivity compared to non-public SOEs and private companies had a distinct advantage in productivity compared with public SOEs. Despite the significant advantages in productivity of private companies over the SOEs, over a 9-year period, we observed that this gap narrowed. This may be due to conditions of high financial volatility and stagnation of the economy that result in certain advantages for SOEs in terms of access to sources of long-term funding and other forms of state support. However, SOEs with indirect state control experienced a rapid growth in revenue and productivity compared to other firms. This may indicate the presence of a specific stock selection mechanism for transferring more effective SOEs from direct state ownership to indirect control as an alternative to privatization.

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DOI: 10.1016/j.ruje.2016.04.005

Authors: Andrey Shastitko, Svetlana Golovanova

Abstract: This paper relates competition studies and views on competition policy within Austrian economics to the dynamic capabilities theory. The idea of interacting research programs in economics is used to provide the frame for reflecting on particular issues of competition, on the one hand, and (1) ignorance, (2) knowledge (including tacit knowledge), (3) rationality, (4) equilibrium, (5) innovation, (6) entrepreneurship, and (7) monopoly, on the other hand. Unlike the majority of previous studies, these issues are discussed here mainly through the lens of new institutional economics. Williamson's three-level scheme is used to explain opportunities and constraints for mutually enriching exchange of concepts between different but close approaches in economic research. This paper shows that there are important interconnections and complementarities despite significant differences in objects of study and weak mutual flows of ideas and concepts.

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DOI: 10.1016/j.ruje.2016.02.005

Authors: Sergey Beshenov, Ivan Rozmainsky

Abstract: This article attempts to analyze the current debt crisis in Greece based on the financial instability hypothesis developed by Hyman Minsky. This article shows that the hypothesis provides an understanding of how an economy endogenously becomes “financially fragile” and thus prone to crises. The authors analyze how public and private sector behavior in the Greek economy led to the country's debt crisis. In particular, based on a sample of 36 Greek companies, the authors show that between 2001 and 2014, the majority of those companies had switched to fragile financial structures. Special attention is devoted to the negative consequences of applying the neoclassical doctrine of “austerity measures” in Greece as the principal “anti-crisis” concept of mainstream economic science.

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DOI: 10.1016/j.ruje.2015.11.003

Authors: Irina Starodubrovskaya

Abstract: This article questions one of the central postulates of institutional economic theory, i.e., that of the sustainability and purely evolutionary changes of informal institutions. To study the phenomenon of the destruction of informal institutions and its consequences, we use the tools of sociological theory, which acknowledge that a period of intensive urbanization is characterized by anomie, i.e., a lack of norms, in which traditional institutions are destroyed, while new urban institutions have not yet taken shape. We reviewed the possible reactions of communities and individuals to the conditions of anomie, including the compensatory mechanisms of ideologies. In the case of the Dagestan Republic, we show how the proliferation of fundamentalist Islamic ideology is associated with the state of anomie and the consequences to which it could lead from an institutional point of view. The analysis of the situation in Dagestan is based on long-term field research conducted in the region.

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DOI: 10.1016/j.ruje.2015.05.001

Authors: Alexander Radygin, Yury Simachev, Revold Entov

Abstract: This article will analyze the activity of state-owned companies and their place in the structure of market relations from the standpoint of contemporary approaches to the study of “state failure” and “market failure”. It will also consider the implications of the systematic embedding of private property rights. In addition to considering the costs of the functions of state-owned companies, the authors address the actual experience of the Russian economy in the present day, the experience of forming state corporations and the risks associated with their operation. Particular attention will be paid to the inhibition of incentives to improve the general institutional environment and, conversely, to the increasing incidence of direct state intervention in matters that affect economic development. We will examine the various ways in which the growth of the public sector, de jure and de facto, reduces opportunities for implementing private property rights.

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