Pricing Pain: Social Discontent and Political Willpower in Russia's Gas Sector

Indra Overland and Hilde Kutschera

Europe-Asia Studies, 2011, vol. 63, issue 2, 311-331

Abstract: This article explores the influence of socio-economic discontent on the determination of decision makers to cut subsidies on natural gas for Russian households. The authors outline first the organisation of gas supplies and subsidies, and secondly the relationship between policymaking signals and public opinion concerning the minor price adjustments implemented so far. They then examine previous cases of discontent in other sectors, extrapolating implications for a major increase in gas prices. The conclusion is that Russian policymaking is characterised by a pattern of ‘two steps forward, one step back’: decision makers are concerned about discontent, but nonetheless they ultimately press on with reform.

Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09668136.2011.547700 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:ceasxx:v:63:y:2011:i:2:p:311-331

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/ceas20

DOI: 10.1080/09668136.2011.547700

Access Statistics for this article

Europe-Asia Studies is currently edited by Terry Cox

More articles in Europe-Asia Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().