Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/35408 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 3958
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Why have economic reforms aimed at reducing the role of the state been successful in some cases but not others? Are reform failures the consequence of leviathan states that hinder private economic activity, or of weak states unable to implement policies effectively and provide a supportive institutional environment? We explore these questions in a study of privatization in postcommunist Russia. Taking advantage of large regional variation in the size of public administrations, and employing a multilevel research design that controls for pre-privatization selection in the estimation of regional privatization effects, we examine the relationship between state bureaucracy and the impact of privatization on firm productivity. We find that privatization is more effective in regions with relatively large bureaucracies. Our analysis suggests that this effect is driven by the impact of bureaucracy on the post-privatization business environment, with better institutional support and less corruption when bureaucracies are large.
Subjects: 
Privatization
bureaucracy
economic reform
Russia
JEL: 
H11
L33
P23
P26
P37
P48
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
350.52 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.