The Oxford Handbook of the Russian Economy

By 1999, Russia's economy was growing at almost 7% per year, and by 2008 reached 11th place in the world GDP rankings. Russia is now the world's second largest producer and exporter of oil, the largest producer and exporter of natural gas, and as a result has the third largest stock of foreign exchange reserves in the world, behind only China and Japan. But while this impressive economic growth has raised the average standard of living and put a number of wealthy Russians on the Forbes billionaires list, it has failed to solve the country's deep economic and social problems inherited from the Soviet times. Russia continues to suffer from a distorted economic structure, with its low labor productivity, heavy reliance on natural resource extraction, low life expectancy, high income inequality, and weak institutions. While a voluminous amount of literature has studied various individual aspects of the Russian economy, in the West there has been no comprehensive and systematic analysis of the socialist legacies, the current state, and future prospects of the Russian economy gathered in one book. The Oxford Handbook of the Russian Economy fills this gap by offering a broad range of topics written by the best Western and Russian scholars of the Russian economy. While the book's focus is the current state of the Russian economy, the first part of the book also addresses the legacy of the Soviet command economy and offers an analysis of institutional aspects of Russia's economic development over the last decade. The second part covers the most important sectors of the economy. The third part examines the economic challenges created by the gigantic magnitude of regional, geographic, ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity of Russia. The fourth part covers various social issues, including health, education, and demographic challenges. It will also examine broad policy challenges, including the tax system, rule of law, as well as corruption and the underground economy. Michael Alexeev and Shlomo Weber provide for the first time in one volume a complete, well-rounded, and essential look at the complex, emerging Russian economy. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/oso/public/content/oho_economics/9780199759927/toc.html Contributors to this volume - Michael V. Alexeev is a Professor of Economics at Indiana University in Bloomington. His research interests include economics of institutions, public economics and economics of transition. Anders Aslund is a Senior Fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. His research focuses on economic policy in Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe. J. David Brown is a Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). He conducts research on privatization, productivity dynamics, and entrepreneurship. Robert F. Conrad is an Associate Professor of Public Policy Studies and Economics at Duke University in Durham. His research interests include tax policy and natural resource economics. Irina Denisova is a Professor of Economics at the New Economic School of Moscow, and Lead Economist in the Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR) in Moscow. Her research interests include labor and health economics. Tatiana Drobyshevskaya is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. Her research interests include Russian economic history and development economics. John S. Earle is a Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University in Fairfax, and a Professor of Economics at the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary. His research interests include firm performance, productivity dynamics, and the consequences of restructuring for workers, as well as various topics in labor, transition, and development economics. Ruben Enikolopov is a Nordea Assistant Professor of Finance at the New Economic School in Moscow, and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His research interests include political economy, economics of mass media, development economics and corporate finance. Revold Entov is a Professor of Economics at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow. His research interests include the study of financial markets in a transitional economy. Richard E. Ericson is a Professor and Chair of theEconomics Department at East Carolina University, and former Director of the Harriman Institute at Columbia University. His research interests include game theory, decision theory, and the development of post-Soviet economies. Stephen Fortescue is an Associate Professor of Russian Politics at the University of New South Wales in Australia. His research interests include business-government relations, the mining and metals industry, and the policy-making process in contemporary Russia. Clifford G. Gaddy is a Senior Fellow in the Brookings Institution's Foreign Policy Studies and its Global Economy and Development Program, Washington, D.C. He studies the Russian economy and politics. Scott Gelbach is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and a Senior Research Fellow at the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development in the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow. A specialist in Russia, his research interests center on the study of economic reform and other questions in political economy. Vladimir Gimpelson is a Professor of Economics and Director at the Center for Labor Market Studies in the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, and a Research Fellow, the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). His work focuses on labor markets in transition economies. Alexander Golub is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at American University, and the former Senior Economist of the Environmental Defense Fund in Washington, D.C. His research interests include environmental policy, climate change economics and health risk analysis. Barry W. Ickes is a Professor and Acting Head in the Department of Economics at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. His research focuses on the Russian economy and the economics of transition. Michael W. Kaganovich is a Professor and Chair in the Economics Department at Indiana University, Bloomington. His main research focus is on Growth Theory, particularly the models of human capital and education. Rostislav Kapeliushnikov is the Chief Researcher at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations in the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Deputy Director at the Centre for Labor Market Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow. His research focuses on labor economics, institutional economics and economics of transition. Byung-Yeon Kim is a Professor of Economics at Seoul National University in Seoul, South Korea. His research interests include economics of transition, economic systems, and development economics. Mikhail Kozeltzev is a Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute for Environmental Economics and Policy at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow. His research interests include economic analysis of environmental liability and environmental regulation, as well development of national and local plans on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Valeriy A. Kryukov is the Deputy Director of the Institute of Economics and Industrial Engineering in the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk, and a Professor of Economics at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow. His research interests focus on the institutional dynamics of the oil and gas sectors in Russia. Zvi Lerman is the Sir Henry d'Avigdor Goldsmid Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Management in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research interests focus on institutional changes in agriculture in former socialist countries in Europe and Central Asia, including land reform, farm restructuring, and the creation of service cooperatives. Mark J. Levin is a Professor of Economics at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow. His research interests include disequilibrium analysis, informal and shadow economy, and analysis of corruption. Michael Lokshin is the Lead Economist in the Development Economics Research Group at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. His research focuses on the analysis of poverty and inequality, labor market policies, and applied econometrics. Oleg V. Lugovoy is a Research Advisor at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in Moscow and the Senior Economic Analyst of the Environmental Defense Fund in Washington, D.C. His research interests include economics of energy and climate change, and economic growth. Valery Makarov is the President and Bank of Moscow Professor of Economics in the New Economic School in Moscow, and the Director of the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute (CEMI) at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. His research interests include public economics, economics of education and computer modeling of socio-economic processes. Andrei Markevich is an Assistant Professor of Economic History at the New Economic School in Moscow, and an Associate Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick, England. His research focus is the economic history, especially institutional aspects of economic development of Russia and the former Soviet Union. Alexander Martusevich is a Consultant for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France. His research interests include environmental economics and finance, water and environmental infrastructure. V