This empirical paper adds to competition and industrial organization literature by exploring the interplay between industry structure and competitiveness on local, rather than nation-wide, markets. We use micro-level statistical data for banks in two Russian regions (Bashkortostan and Tatarstan)...

We study the connection between the social pattern of conspicuous consumption, on the one hand, and financialization, on the other. Our claim is that greater availability of consumer loans from Russian banks feeds consumerism and promotes the institution of conspicuous consumption. Cars have...

Drawing on the merit goods concept developed by Richard A. Musgrave, this paper introduces the notion of quasi-merit goods. The criteria of eligibility for merit goods are vague. A quasi-merit good constitutes a special case where government protection and sponsorship are obtained via public...

We undertook an institutional analysis of commercial banks in Russia. After the failed experiment with private financial intermediation in the 1990s, Russia migrated towards a banking system consisting of three — rather than two — tiers and featuring core institutions controlled by the state...

The case of deposit insurance introduction in Russia may suggest that institutional change in post-socialist economies was partly driven by subjective factors, and the choice of imported institutions was rather random. The circumstances under which explicit deposit insurance emerged in Russia...