The Industrialization and Economic Development of Russia through the Lens of a Neoclassical Growth Model

Anton Cheremukhin, Mikhail Golosov, Sergei Guriev and Aleh Tsyvinski
Additional contact information
Aleh Tsyvinski: YALE - Department of Computer Science - Yale University [New Haven]

SciencePo Working papers Main from HAL

Abstract: This article studies the structural transformation of Russia in 1885–1940 from an agrarian to an industrial economy through the lens of a two-sector neoclassical growth model. We construct a data set that covers Tsarist Russia during 1885–1913 and Soviet Union during 1928–1940. We develop a methodology that allows us to identify the types of frictions and economic mechanisms that had the largest quantitative impact on Russian economic development. We find that entry barriers and monopoly power in the non-agricultural sector were the most important reason for Tsarist Russia's failure to industrialize before World War I. Soviet industrial transformation after 1928 was achieved primarily by reducing such frictions, albeit coinciding with a significantly lower performance of productivity in both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. We find no evidence that Tsarist agricultural institutions were a significant barrier to labour reallocation to manufacturing, or that "Big Push" mechanisms were a major driver of Soviet growth.

Keywords: Wedge accounting; Structural transformation; Industrialization; Soviet economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-04
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published in Review of Economic Studies, 2017, 84 (2), pp.613-649. ⟨10.1093/restud/rdw026⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Journal Article: The Industrialization and Economic Development of Russia through the Lens of a Neoclassical Growth Model (2017)
Working Paper: The Industrialization and Economic Development of Russia through the Lens of a Neoclassical Growth Model (2017)
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:hal:spmain:hal-03878658

DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdw026

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in SciencePo Working papers Main from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Contact - Sciences Po Departement of Economics ().