IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2002-126.html

Seductions of an Underdevelopment Trap: Systemic Impediments to Agricultural Reform in Russia

Author

Listed:
  • Mr. Dmitry Gershenson
  • Ms. Maria Amelina

Abstract

Despite ambitious agricultural reforms initiated by the federal government, inefficient and unprofitable producers predominate in post-Soviet Russia. However, in some regions a more robust restructuring has taken place. Observing two Russian regions-one with substantially restructured agricultural production, and one in which Soviet-style coordination predominates-we develop a model of the interactions between political and economic incentives that lead to these divergent outcomes. The model identifies region- and sector-specific characteristics that encourage some regional governments to maintain Soviet-style redistribution structures and make producers forsake more efficient outcomes as more costly, while encouraging other regions to pursue reform.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. Dmitry Gershenson & Ms. Maria Amelina, 2002. "Seductions of an Underdevelopment Trap: Systemic Impediments to Agricultural Reform in Russia," IMF Working Papers 2002/126, International Monetary Fund.
  • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2002/126
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=15786
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raghuram G. Rajan & Luigi Zingales, 1998. "Power in a Theory of the Firm," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(2), pages 387-432.
    2. Galbi, Douglas, 1995. "The significance of credits and subsidies in Russian agricultural reform," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1441, The World Bank.
    3. Weingast, Barry, 1992. "The Economic Role of Political Institutions," Institute for Policy Reform Working Paper Series 294809, Institute for Policy Reform.
    4. Weingast, Barry, 1992. "The Economic Role of Political Institutions," Institute for Policy Reform Archive 294809, Institute for Policy Reform.
    5. David Epstein & Peter Tillack, 1999. "How Russian Agricultural Enterprises Are Surviving: The Financial Status of Large Agricultural Enterprises in the St. Petersburg Region," Eastern European Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(5), pages 52-92, October.
    6. Ilya R. Segal, 1998. "Monopoly and Soft Budget Constraint," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 29(3), pages 596-609, Autumn.
    7. Olivier Blanchard & Michael Kremer, 1997. "Disorganization," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1091-1126.
    8. Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1994. "Politicians and Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(4), pages 995-1025.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Jiahua Che, 2000. "Decentralized Financing, Centralized Financing and the Dual Track System: Toward a New Theory of Soft Budget Constraints," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 261, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    2. David Martimort & Flavio Menezes & Myrna Wooders & ELISABETTA IOSSA & DAVID MARTIMORT, 2015. "The Simple Microeconomics of Public-Private Partnerships," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 17(1), pages 4-48, February.
    3. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2025. "The Soft Budget Constraint: A Theoretical Clarification," Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought, in: The Legacy of Janos Kornai, chapter 0, pages 229-273, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Campos, Nauro F & Giovannoni, Francesco, 2006. "The Determinants of Asset Stripping: Theory and Evidence from the Transition Economies," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(2), pages 681-706, October.
    5. Alberto Cavaliere & Simona Scabrosetti, 2008. "Privatization And Efficiency: From Principals And Agents To Political Economy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 685-710, September.
    6. Huang, Wendi & Peng, Ye, 2025. "Anti-corruption and corporate investment: Evidence from financial disclosure laws," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    7. David Martimort & Stephane Straub, 2006. "Privatization and Changes in Corruption Patterns: The Roots of Public Discontent," Edinburgh School of Economics Discussion Paper Series 147, Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh.
    8. Djankov, Simeon & Glaeser, Edward & La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "The new comparative economics," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 595-619, December.
    9. Lars-Hendrik Röller & Zhentang Zhang, 1999. "Provision of Social Goods and Soft Budget Constraints," CIG Working Papers FS IV 99-27, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).
    10. Kenya Fujiwara, 2006. "Corporate Debt Restructuring and Public Financial Institutions in Japan -Do Government-Affiliated Financial Institutions Soften Budget Constraints?-," Public Policy Review, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan, vol. 2(1), pages 141-176, January.
    11. repec:rnp:ecopol:ep1368 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Kornai, János & Maskin, Eric & Roland, Gérard, 2022. "A puha költségvetési korlát - II [The soft budget constraint II]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 94-132.
    13. Vahabi, Mehrdad, 2011. "Soft budget constraint and the parastatal sector," MPRA Paper 37926, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Everaert, Greetje M.M., 2004. "The political economy of restructuring and subsidisation : an international perspective," BOFIT Discussion Papers 12/2004, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
    15. Thorsten Janus, 2009. "Aid and the Soft Budget Constraint," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 264-275, May.
    16. Martimort, David & Straub, Stéphane, 2009. "Infrastructure privatization and changes in corruption patterns: The roots of public discontent," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 69-84, September.
    17. Everaert, Greetje M.M., 2004. "The political economy of restructuring and subsidisation: an international perspective," BOFIT Discussion Papers 12/2004, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    18. Eric Maskin & Chenggang Xu, 2007. "Soft Budget Constraint Theories: From Centralization to the Market," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Erik Berglöf & Gérard Roland (ed.), The Economics of Transition, chapter 2, pages 12-36, Palgrave Macmillan.
    19. Alexander Radygin & Revold Entov, 2014. "The Fundamental Privatization Theorem: Ideology, Evolution, Practice," Working Papers 0087, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, revised 2014.
    20. Roller, Lars-Hendrik & Zhang, Zhentang, 2005. "Bundling of social and private goods and the soft budget constraint problem," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 47-58, March.
    21. Lars-Hendrik Roeller & Zhentang Zhang, 2003. "Provision of Social Goods and Soft Budget Constraints," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 360, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:imf:imfwpa:2002/126. 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: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.html .

    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.