one half of Russian population is disappointed with transition and a large majority is in favor of high state regulation … and state provision of goods and services. High demand for government regulation and increased state intervention coexists … business imposes negative externalities on the society and society chooses to demand more state regulation and tolerate …

Governments that levy predatory regulation and provide few weak legal institutions draw businesses into the unofficial … economy and compel them to hire private protection organizations. Based on a survey of shopkeepers in three cities in Russia …, we find that retail shops face very high levels of predatory regulation and have frequent contacts with private …

We document unequal enforcement of liberalization reform of business regulation across Russian regions with different …