This file is part of IDEAS, which uses RePEc data


[ Papers | Articles | Software | Books | Chapters | Authors | Institutions | JEL Classification | NEP reports | Search | New papers by email | Author registration | Rankings | Volunteers | FAQ | Blog | Help! ]

Restructuring, Efficiency and Output Decline of Russian Industries and Regions

Author info | Abstract | Publisher info | Download info | Related research | Statistics
Author Info
M. Obersteiner
Abstract

Improvements in economic efficiency and productivity are the most important sources for economic growth and will play a major role in the process of industrial restructuring in the Russian Federation which has yet to occur. The Soviet Union left an institutional vacuum and large economic distortions behind, which set the stage for an established elite to systematically exploit factors of production for their personal benefit. Economic agents lacked the resources and incentives to increase efficiency of the markets they operated in.

This paper generates some empirical highlights of the outcomes of industrial transformation from 1987 to 1997 and focuses on one of the most popular theoretical explanations for output industrial output decline during transition, which proves that the initial need of restructuring causes output decline but brings with it efficiency improvements. Despite large uncertainties on the accuracy of Russian industrial statistics, the following results are worth mentioning: (1) Early steps of liberalization, macro-economic stabilization and the launch of the privatization package did not bring about improved economic efficiency in industrial production in absolute and relative terms, widening the economic distance to the rest of the world; (2) Less concentrated and highly localized industries performed better, which can mainly be explained by the performance of the resource extracting industries; (3) Price liberalization revealed increasing returns in industrial production and the contribution of capital to output declined rapidly, while the contribution of labor increased.

It can be concluded that the increasing domination of resource extractive industries, combined with the economies of scale production of its allied processing industries, will increasingly widen the disparity of wealth among regions and social layers leading to further economic and political disintegration of Russia.

Download Info
To download:

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. Information about this may be contained in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Documents/IR-99-066.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function:
Download Restriction: no
File URL: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Documents/IR-99-066.ps
File Format: application/postscript
File Function:
Download Restriction: no

Publisher Info
Paper provided by International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in its series Working Papers with number ir99066.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length:
Date of creation: Nov 1999
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wop:iasawp:ir99066

Contact details of provider:
Postal: A-2361 Laxenburg
Phone: +43-2236-807-0
Fax: +43-2236-71313
Email:
Web page: http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Publications/Catalog/PUB_ONLINE.html
More information through EDIRC

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Thomas Krichel).

Related research
Keywords:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

Statistics
Access and download statistics

Did you know? You may want to explore EconPapers, which displays the same data as IDEAS in a different way.

This page was last updated on 2009-12-2.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.