The New Russia

by Klein, Lawrence R.

• ISBN13: 9780804741651
• ISBN10: 0804741654
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-01
• Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr

Summary

"This admirable work has contributions from an impressive group of specialists who cover the topic comprehensively. Balanced, reasonable transitions in various economic sectors are urged persuasively and in some cases even eloquently. The book has the potential for making a significant impact." Ralph T. Fisher, Jr., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign This book delivers an unpopular message: the West has played a pivotal role in the Russian economic disaster of the 1990s. Western advisors, including the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Treasury, applied a narrow conception of economics that pushed Russia, after more than seventy years of communism, toward another failed utopia. The twenty-six contributions to this book are divided into three parts: theory, evidence, and policy. Part One directly challenges orthodox economic theory for obscuring the necessary role of government in creating and sustaining a market system and features essays by three Nobel laureates in economicsKenneth J. Arrow, Lawrence R. Klein, and James Tobin. Part Two describes the dimensions of the economic crisis in Russia and presents a Russian perspective on the failure of shock therapy. Part Three presents policy recommendations, with special attention given to improving the integrity and administrative competence of the Russian government.

Author Biography

Lawrence R. Klein, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1980, is Benjamin Franklin Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his many books is The Economics of Supply and Demand. Marshall Pomer is President of the Macroeconomic Policy Institute, Santa Cruz, California. He is the author of Intergenerational Occupational Mobility in the United States: A Segmentation Perspective.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Foreword	xiii
Mikhail Gorbachev
Preface	xvii
Joseph E. Stiglitz
Introduction	1	(20)
Marshall Pomer
PART ONE: ECONOMIC ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
Transition and Government	21	(32)
Marshall Pomer
Neoliberalism	53	(8)
Oleg Bogomolov
A Balanced Approach	61	(4)
Leonid Abalkin
False Expectations	65	(8)
James Tobin
What Do Economists Know about Transition to a Market System?	73	(12)
Lawrence R. Klein
The Role of Time	85	(8)
Kenneth J. Arrow
Institutional Traps	93	(24)
Victor M. Polterovich
Lessons from Korea	117	(22)
Irma Adelman
PART TWO: ECONOMIC CRISIS
Demise of the Command Economy	139	(32)
Marshall Pomer
Origins and Consequences of ``Shock Therapy''	171	(8)
Georgi Arbatov
Economic Subordination to the West	179	(10)
Sergei Glaziev
Sham Stabilization	189	(10)
yevgeny Gavrilenkov
Macroeconomic Disorder: A Comparison with China	199	(22)
Andrei Belousov
Lance Taylor
Ersatz Banks	221	(12)
Michael S. Bernstam
Andrei Sitnikov
Crime and Corruption	233	(18)
Svetlana P. Glinkina
Andrei Grigoriev
Vakhtang Yakobidze
Poverty and Social Assistance	251	(20)
Vladimir Mikhalev
PART THREE: POLICY AGENDA
Government Leadership	271	(28)
Marshall Pomer
Restructuring Agencies	299	(16)
David Ellerman
Dmitri Kuvalin
Marshall Pomer
Aggregate Demand	315	(10)
Stanislav Menshikov
Trade Within the Commonwealth of Independent States	325	(8)
Ruslan S. Grinberg
Agriculture	333	(20)
Geliy Shmeliov
Bruce McWilliams
John Giraldez
Alexander Vedrashko
The Coal Industry	353	(12)
Alexander Arbatov
Edit Kranner
Energy Efficiency	365	(14)
Eric Martinot
Vladimir Usiyevich
Real Estate Markets	379	(14)
Dwight Jafee
Olga Kaganova
Management of Public Holdings	393	(10)
Alexander D. Nekipelov
Human Capital	403	(32)
Michael D. Intriligator
Serguey Braguinsky
Vitaly Shvydko
Reform Agenda
Economic Transition Group	413	(22)
Statistical Appendix	435	(10)
Index	445	(8)
Contributors	453