The aim of the paper is to understand the specifics of the interaction of two models of regional economic integration co-existing in Eastern Europe: the post-Soviet integration and the cooperation with the EU. The paper claims that institutional competition between integration projects may...

The aim of the paper is to understand how the structure of government-business relations influences the quality of institutions and economic development in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The paper identifies the key elements of the business community engaged in negotiations with the state, explores...

In economics, the local knowledge advantage is arguably one of the key arguments in favor of decentralizing the public sector. However, empirical investigations of this particular effect have been scarce. This paper tests the existence of the local knowledge advantage in a real-world setting....

The book examines the major economic and political transitions currently taking place in the Eurasian continent. Vinokurov and Libman provide a detailed account of various aspects of Eurasian integration, looking at both its bright side (trade, investments and joint infrastructure) and dark side...

Within a single generation, the post-Soviet political, economic, and social landscape has changed immensely. The new structures — ranging from national power structures to a completely new economic reality based on the market instead of centralized planning — have come into existence. As 20...

‘Eurasia’ seems to be a relatively clear concept in terms of physical geography, but much less so for social sciences. While the word ‘Eurasia’ is constantly used in various contexts (more today than twenty years ago), the specific notion of what it actually means is unclear. According...

This note reviews two possible approaches to political economics scholarship - one concentrating on redistribution conflicts under the assumption of homogenous preferences and one focusing on preference heterogeneity and, among other issues, cultural specificty of agents. It discusses both...

The paper investigates the determinants and consequences of variation of development of the civil society across Russian regions. It starts by looking at factors explaining the level of development of civil society in Russian regions. In the next step, it links the development of civil society...

In recent years, BRIC countries have demonstrated high rates of economic growth, rapid increases in GDP per capita and growing capital accumulation, and have been playing an increasingly important role in the global economy. However, as middle-income countries (low-income in the case of India),...

Although decentralization is often modeled as an outcome of bargaining over rents and poli-cies, intuitively it seems possible that public statements, symbols and status often have a great impact on this process. The paper studies the relative importance of the “real” political actions...