Politicians care about tax revenues in part because they pay for transfers or public goods which are important to voters, and which are therefore important for the politician’s reelection. When economic sectors differ in their taxability, i.e. the degree to which tax revenues can be extracted...

This paper reports first results from a survey of 404 middle-sized and large manufacturing firms from 40 Russian regions in April-June 2003. We examine the extent of social service and infrastructure provision by the firms and the firms’ assessment of the quality of public infrastructure and...

Despite the strong growth performance in transition countries in the last decade, residents of transition countries report abnormally low levels of life satisfaction. Using data from multiple sources including a recent survey in 28 post-communist countries, we study various explanations of this...

Does fiscal decentralization lead to more efficient governance, better public goods, and higher economic growth? This paper tests Riker’s theory (1964) that the results of fiscal decentralization depend on the level of countries’ political centralization. We analyze crosssection and panel...

We study the determinants of the decision to become an entrepreneur in Russia, China, and Brazil, using unique survey data at the individual level. We find that entrepreneurs have many common characteristics relative to non-entrepreneurs in all three countries. They are more likely to have...

We study hiring decisions made by competing universities in a dynamic framework, focusing on the structure of university finance. Universities with annual state-approved financing underinvest in high-quality faculty, while universities that receive a significant part of their annual income from...

We study the determinants of the decision to become an entrepreneur in 7 Russian cities. Using data on 400 entrepreneurs and 440 non-entrepreneurs, we find considerable variation in the proportion of entrepreneurs, ranging from 6% of adult population in Nizhny Novgorod, to 16% in Perm and 18% in...

The paper investigates credibility of the intermediary's advice in a bilateral trade model. A seller and a buyer with private and independent uniformly distributed valuations exchange a unit of good. Their trade is mediated by an intermediary, who at the pre-bargaining stage observes a coarse...

Using a unique dataset built for the World Bank’s Country Economic Memorandum, we find that a relatively small number of tycoons ('oligarchs') control a substantial share of Russia’s economy. Oligarchs seem to run their empires more efficiently than other Russian owners. While the relative...

The process of opening and integration into the world economy in the CIS countries has been part of a more complex process of transition from the planned to market economy. Over the last 10 years most of these countries have liberalized their trade regimes versus non-CIS countries, introduced...