IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ijecbs/v2y1995i2p297-327.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Privatization in Russia: What Should be a Firm?

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Joskow
  • Richard Schmalensee

Abstract

This paper examines a variety of issues associated with the restructuring of Russian industry prior to privatization, from a transactions cost perspective. It is argued that none of the components of the industrial hierarchies inherited from the Soviet system corresponded closely to firms in a modem market economy. Moreover, product-level concentration of production created potential monopoly problems. Ideally, it would have been desirable to restructure Russian industry to create efficient organizations and competitive market structures prior to privatization. However, political and information constraints precluded widespread fine tuning of the existing industrial hierarchies prior to privatization. Given these constraints, the decision of the Gaidar government to focus privatization on 'enterprises', i.e. the smallest organizational units within the industrial hierarchies, was sensible and led to significant deconcentration of Russian industry. Policies with regard to voluntary separation of subunits of enterprises and aggregation of enterprises prior to privatization also helped to promote deconcentration. Significant additional restructuring of Russian industry is expected now that the mass privatization has been completed.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Joskow & Richard Schmalensee, 1995. "Privatization in Russia: What Should be a Firm?," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(2), pages 297-327.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ijecbs:v:2:y:1995:i:2:p:297-327
    DOI: 10.1080/758519315
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/758519315
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/758519315?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brown, A.N. & Ickes, B. & Ryterman, R., 1993. "The Myth of Monopoly: A New View of Industrial Structure in Russia," Papers 10-93-5, Pennsylvania State - Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jozef Konings & Patrick Van Cayseele & Frederic Warzynski, 2005. "The Effects of Privatization and Competitive Pressure on Firms' Price-Cost Margins: Micro Evidence from Emerging Economies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 124-134, February.
    2. Asaftei, Gabriel & Parmeter, Christopher F., 2010. "Market power, EU integration and privatization: The case of Romania," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 340-356, September.
    3. Francesc Trillas, 2004. "The structure of corporate ownership in privatized utilities," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 28(2), pages 257-284, May.
    4. A.S. Bim, 1996. "Ownership, Control Over the Enterprises and Strategies of Stockholders ," Working Papers wp96050, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christa Hainz, 2007. "Business Groups in Emerging Markets: Financial Control and Sequential Investments," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 163(2), pages 336-355, June.
    2. Simon Commander, 2018. "One-company towns: Scale and consequences," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 433-433, March.
    3. Lücke, Matthias & Rothert, Jacek, 2006. "Central Asia's comparative advantage in international trade," Kiel Economic Policy Papers 6, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    4. Maxim Ananiev & Sergei Guriev, 2014. "The Effect of Income on Trust: the Evidence from 2009 Crisis in Russia," Working Papers hal-03429914, HAL.
    5. Lazareva Olga, "undated". "Adjusting Boundaries of Russian Firms," EERC Working Paper Series 04-08e, EERC Research Network, Russia and CIS.
    6. Sergei Guriev & Dmitry Kvassov, 2000. "Barter for price discrimination? A theory and evidence from Russia," Working Papers w0007, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).
    7. Guriev, Sergei & Kvassov, Dmitri, 2004. "Barter for price discrimination," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 329-350, March.
    8. J.S. Earle & S. Estrin, 1996. "Privatization Versus Competition: Changing Enterprise Behavior in Russia," Working Papers wp96049, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
    9. Recanatini, Francesca & Ryterman, Randi, 2001. "Disorganization or self-organization : the emergence of business associations in a transition economy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2539, The World Bank.
    10. Ickes, Barry W. & Ofer, Gur, 2006. "The political economy of structural change in Russia," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 409-434, June.
    11. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8lt2edmul9geov3cf3fqf7h92 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. J. David Brown & John S. Earle, 2000. "Competition and Firm Performance: Lessons from Russia," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 296, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    13. Maxim Ananiev & Sergei Guriev, 2014. "The Effect of Income on Trust: the Evidence from 2009 Crisis in Russia," Working Papers hal-03429914, HAL.
    14. Langhammer, Rolf J., 1994. "Designing new trade policies for the CIS states: legacies, barriers and prerequisites," Kiel Working Papers 625, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    15. Langhammer, Rolf J. & Lücke, Matthias, 1995. "Trade among the Post-Soviet states: evolution and policy issues," Kiel Working Papers 708, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    16. A. Yakovlev, 1996. "Industrial Enterprises in the Markets. New Marketing Relations, Status and Perspectives of Competition," Working Papers wp96048, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
    17. Ben Slay, 1995. "Industrial demonopolization and competition policy in Poland and Hungary1," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 3(4), pages 479-504, December.
    18. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/18morovaof8fdbvqtbkas8cvhm is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Paul Welfens, 1999. "Overcoming the Russian transformation crisis," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 34(3), pages 144-151, May.
    20. Irena Grosfeld & Claudia Senik-Leygonie, 1996. "Trois enjeux des privatisations à l'Est," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 47(6), pages 1351-1371.
    21. Buch, Claudia M. & Koop, Michael J. & Schweickert, Rainer & Wolf, Hartmut, 1995. "Währungsreformen im Vergleich: monetäre Strategien in Rußland, Weißrußland, Estland und der Ukraine," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 831, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    22. Pekka Sutela, 1994. "Insider privatisation in Russia: Speculations on systemic change," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(3), pages 417-435.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ijecbs:v:2:y:1995:i:2:p:297-327. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CIJB20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.