Was taxation so heavy in the Russian transition that firms could not stay afloat?ʺ is the question that this paper aims to answer. It details the fiscal structure and uses data from a number of sources to calculate statutory tax rates faced by businesses in 1995. The results show that statutory...

The paper addresses the question of effective tax rates for Russian economic sectors in transition. It presents a detailed account of fiscal environment for 1995 and compares statutory obligations with reported tax liabilities. The paper finds that taxation did not contribute to recession, as...

This paper tests the proposition that Russian nominal prices were distorted to support bankrupt sectors, which is the foundation of the virtual economy. The input-output table for 1997 is converted from rubles into dollars using American prices as shadow values. Three sectors belonging to the...

In the aftermath of sovereign default of August 1998, the hypothesis of virtual economy in Russia developed by Gaddy and Ickes has gained popularity. The hypothesis states that the country has not moved towards free-market economy but developed a system of implicit price subsidization similar to...