In pursuit of its transition from a command to a market economy, post-Soviet Russia has witnessed enormous regional differences in economic growth rates. Moreover, the economic reforms implemented under this transition, while initiated at the federal level, have also differed markedly across...

We model the taxation behavior of a revenue maximizing government in the presence of tax evasion by firms and the existence of a competing tax collector in the form of organized crime (the "mafia"). In order to evade taxes, the firm must shift some of its sales underground, possibly incurring...