This paper studies the behavior of the entire distribution of consumer prices across Russian regions over the decade of 2001–2010. The analysis uses non-parametric techniques, exploiting the distribution dynamics approach. The results obtained evidence that regional relative prices in Russia...

There is a widespread opinion that goods, especially foods, and services in Russia are very cheap as compared to the US. A number of Russian statistical indicators characterizing the cost of living, either directly or indirectly, seemingly corroborate this opinion. This paper demonstrates that...

This article considers an aggregated market represented by a staples basket and analyzes changes in the degree of spatial integration of this market during 1992 to 2019. In an integrated market, interaction of demand and supply in the national market, and not in a regional market, determines the...

A significant issue in studies of economic development is whether economies (countries, regions of a country, etc.) converge to one another in terms of per capita income. In this paper, nonlinear asymptotically subsiding trends of income gap in a pair of economies model the convergence process....

Based on a relationship between price difference and demand difference among locations, the role of various market frictions in causing segmentation of the Russian goods market is analyzed.The spatial sample covers most of Russian regions (70 of all the 89); the data are yearly, spanning 1992...

Perfect integration eludes the real world, so we suggest a realistic benchmark standard for judging the extent of market integration in various economies. We estimate the degree of integration in the US product market, widely acknowledged to be the most integrated among geographically large...

This paper analyzes the spatial structure of goods market integration in Russia, characterizing regions into three states: (a) integrated, (b) not integrated but trending toward integration, and (c) not integrated and not trending toward integration. Using time series of the cost of a staples...

Lacking data on price levels across locations (countries, national regions, etc.) for cross-space comparisons, researchers resort to local consumer price indexes (CPIs) over time to evaluate these levels. This approach unfortunately fails to specify, even generally, the exactness of such...

This paper studies integration of the Moscow market for final goods with markets of all other Russian regions. It considers an aggregated market represented by a minimum food basket. The law of one price serves as a criterion of market integration. It is a base for constructing time series...

Based on price levels (cost-of-living indices) across Russian cities that are published by the Russian Statistical Agency, regional price levels relative to the national average are computed over 2009–2015. Results obtained are compared with approximate estimates of regional price levels that...