Suchergebnisse

Mortality and life expectancy in post-communist countries : what are the lessons for other countries? / Vladimir Popov -- A theory of why potentially favourable political and economic changes may lead to mortality crises / Giovanni Andrea Cornia -- Mortality crises in high-income countries : evidence from the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Greece / Roberto De Vogli -- The mortality crisis of the former Soviet bloc countries, 1989-2014 / Giovanni Andrea Cornia -- Mortality crisis in Russia revisited : evidence from a cross-regional comparison / Vladimir Popov -- The path of economic development and health status : evidence from China / Yue Teng and Luca Bortolotti -- Policy reform from the early 1990s and changes in health status in India : 1991-2016 / C.P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh.

Most of the time the budget constraints in the socialist economies were harder than in developing countries and no less hard than in developed countries. The soft budget constraints (SBC) in socialist economies were not pervasive, as most authors believe, but selective, i.e. involved subsidization of some enterprises/industries at the expense of the other. This type of selective subsidization is a classic case of industrial policy: it may be good or bad, leading to success (China, Vietnam) or failure (USSR, Eastern Europe), but cannot be regarded as an intrinsic feature of the socialist centrally planned economy and an example of pervasive SBC. Pervasive SBC should be associated with permanent government budget deficit, debt accumulation, high inflation and other forms of macroeconomic populism. In the Soviet Union in the post-war period (after the monetary reform of 1947 and until the Gorbachev financial and monetary expansion that started in 1987) budget deficit and debt were very low, open and hidden inflation was less than several percent a year - a better record than in most Western countries. But in the 1990s in Russia, other former Soviet republics and most East European countries budget constraints were weakened dramatically and inflation increased to hundreds and thousands percent a year. SBC is just one type of this populist macroeconomic policy that was rare in socialist countries, but is found in abundance in many developing countries (especially Latin America and Sub-Sahara Africa) and transition economies (especially FSU states).

This paper examines the determinants of financial flows between the federal government and regional authorities in Russia. The main question is to what extent intergovernmental transfers correspond to the 'ideal pattern' - equalisation of the abilities of the regions to provide public goods - and to what extent, if at all, they reflect the influence of federal - regional political discourse (asymmetrical federalism). The main finding is that actual net transfers since 1994, although quite close to the 'ideal patterns', depended also on the results of the parliamentary (1993, 1995, 1999) and presidential (1996, 2000) elections and on the relations of the regions with the federal centre. The more votes cast for pro-central government parties in parliamentary elections and for Yeltsin in the 1996 presidential elections and the lower the tensions with Moscow after the elections, the more favourable was the fiscal balance for the region with the federal centre. The result is very robust when using different measures of fiscal capacity (index of tax potential) and costs of providing public goods (budgetary expenditure adjustment index). (Comparative Economic Studies / SWP)

In dem Beitrag werden diejenigen Faktoren einer eingehenden Untersuchung unterzogen, die dazu geführt haben, daß der Produktionsrückgang in den russischen Regionen jeweils sehr unterschiedlich ausfiel. Im einzelnen werden untersucht: (1) die Ausgangsbedingungen; (2) das institutionelle Potential der Regionalverwaltungen; (3) das Tempo der Liberalisierung und Privatisierung; (4) die wirtschaftliche Dynamik. Der Verfasser kommt zu dem Schluß, daß es keinen eindeutigen Beweis dafür gibt, daß die Wirtschaftsreformen einen direkten Einfluß auf das Ausmaß des Produktionsrückgangs gehabt haben. Demgegenüber bildet der Einfluß der budgetären Mittelverteilung durch das föderale Zentrum einen nicht zu unterschätzenden Faktor im Hinblick auf die Entwicklung in den Regionen. (BIOst-Mrk)

The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on Russia / Peter Rutland. - S. 2-5 Financial Indicators. - S. 5-9 World Commodity Prices. - S. 9-12 The Financial Crisis as Perceived by the Russian Population (Late September 2008). - S. 12-15 After 10 Years of Growth, the Russian Economy May Be Losing Steam / Vladimir Popov . - S. 15-18 Economic and Social Indicators. - S. 18