Institutional Change and the Problems of Restructuring the Russian Fishing Industry

This article discusses how the transition from a planned towards a market-based economy has affected the Russian fishing industry. It is based on a series of studies of the Northwest Russian fishing industry, where evidence from its past role and functioning is contrasted with the current situation. The conceptual perspective drawn on is institutional theory, with a focus on higher-order institutions. One of the main findings is that the fishing companies stand out as the only surviving party in the game. The losers are the land-based fish processing industry, the mother ship and transport fleet, and the support structures, which depend on the activities generated by the prime production (fishing). It is argued that the new institutional arrangements necessarily force a new adaptation among the fishing companies, and suggested that some of the changes of the higher-order institutions have been less successful than initially assumed, as there still are several adverse elements in the Russian institutional arrangements that hinder further transition toward a marketbased economy.     

俄罗斯国家身份转变及其对中俄关系的影响

国家身份是影响俄罗斯对外战略和中俄关系的重要因素。俄罗斯在国际社会的互动中，逐渐调整其国家身份：由世界性大国转变为地区性大国，由西方国家调整为欧亚国家。转变后的俄罗斯国家身份与中国的国家身份比较接近，这对中俄关系产生重大影响，使两国关系不断密切并走上良性发展的轨道。     

Financial crisis in the Russian Federation: Are the Russians learning to tango?

The paper presents some evidence about the rise and fall of financial markets in Russia in the course of 1998, and discusses the causes and likely consequences of the crisis for the Russian economy. It also discusses some important policy issues regarding the effects of global financial integration. The central message is that the Russian financial disaster is a typical example of crisis contagion, although the underlying vulnerability of the economy was a problem which no investor could ignore. In particular, financial stabilization remained extremely fragile owing to the deterioration of the fiscal situation and the vulnerability of the banking system.     

俄罗斯“博物馆保护区”的发展、特征及其启示

俄罗斯博物馆保护区兼顾有形与无形文化遗产保护的综合管理,关注人文环境与自然环境的整体保护问题。通过对俄罗斯文化遗产保护体系的梳理,基于博物馆保护区在俄罗斯文化遗产保护体系中的地位,对俄罗斯博物馆保护区的基本概念、分布特征、保护区划和基本分类等内容进行研究。最后,从整合机制和管理机构设置两方面分析中国历史文化街区保护存在的问题,提出作为文化机构的博物馆保护区制度,将为完善中国历史文化街区的保护制度提供必要的借鉴和启示。     

Sovereignty as a Resource: Performing Securitised Borders in Tajikistan’s Pamirs

This paper scrutinises the translation of sovereignty into daily actions at the border. The Soviet Union established a heavily securitised and sealed border, which was perpetuated in post-Soviet, civil war-stricken Tajikistan by assigning the task to the Russian Federation’s border forces. After having taken over the task of guarding the border, the slowly recovering post-conflict state tried hard to maintain its own border control. Drawing on interviews with borderland people, this article discusses the convergence of Tajikistan’s strong claim but weak support for sovereignty, with the daily life of the borderland people. It will show how – given the Pamirs’ special status as a border district – far-reaching sovereign authority of state agents, aiming to provide security at the border, has been translated into arbitrary actions ensuring individual benefits and has been hidden by intransparency. The article argues that the lack of adequate support from the central government encourages state representatives at the border to reinterpret the sovereign power assigned to them in order to serve their own individual benefits and purposes. Instead of being used to maintain the state territory, the sovereignty’s power is diverted to serve individual interests, in the end serving to destabilize the border, the opposite of the intended purpose.     

Explaining Russia's Currency and Financial Crisis

The paper attempts to sketch a framework for understanding Russia's August 1998 financial and currency crises with reference to the main theories put forward so far. Our thesis is that, while not fitting easily into any pre-existing framework, the Russian crises shares many features of first-generation models inasmuch as it was largely due to inconsistencies among an overvalued peg, tight money, and an evident inability to address the fiscal deficit. In other terms, it derived from the incompatibility between standard IMF stabilisation policies and the difficulties that Russia was facing as a transition economy. On the other hand, by touching both currency markets and the banking sector, the Russian Episode shares also important features of the twin crises framework.The analysis considers the role of exchange rate movements and capital flows on Russia's rising vulnerability, fiscal problems and the building up of the public debt. It assesses the state of the Russian Banking sector and discusses the contagion effects of the Asian crisis and policy response. It shows how the core of the Russian crises lies in an unsound, IMF-backed, defence of the rouble, which in 1998 had become increasingly unsustainable.     

Adult mortality in Russia

This paper studies the determinants of Russian adult mortality controlling for both individual and household heterogeneity. We employ survival analysis and utilize 12 rounds of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey spanning a 14‐year period. Although confirming the crucial role of excessive alcohol consumption in shaping adult mortality risks in Russia, the results are original in several other respects. We find empirical support for the importance of relative status measured in non‐income terms in shaping mortality hazards. We find evidence of the influence of labour market behaviour, and sectoral and occupational mobility in particular, on longevity. The detrimental role of smoking to health is found to be comparable with the role of excess alcohol consumption, which is novel in the Russian context where the influence of smoking is typically downplayed in comparison with alcoholism. Finally, we find no micro evidence in support of the political economy view based on a positive correlation between low alcohol prices and high mortality rates found in regional‐level data.     

俄语专业单一培养模式向复合型培养模式的转变——以东北石油大学石油俄语复合型培养模式为例

中国和俄罗斯作为联合国安全理事会的常任理事国,在国际事务中扮演着重要的角色。近年来,在国际形势经历着深刻变化的大背景下,中国与俄罗斯合作深度与宽度都在逐步扩大,这就使我国俄语专业迎来了新的春天。但我国俄语专业的培养模式还是单一"俄语语言文学"培养模式,亟须解决俄语专业培养复合型俄语人才的问题,使俄语专业人才更能适应中俄两国的合作发展,这些问题具有重大的理论意义和现实意义。因此,以东北石油大学石油俄语复合型培养模式为例,探讨转变俄语专业培养模式的问题。     

Social Networks among Russian Information and Communication Technology Professionals

This article analyses the extent to which the economic actions of Russian information and communication technology (ICT) professionals are embedded in and influenced by their personal networks. The study is based on empirical data collected in 2004 in St Petersburg, one of the strongholds of Russian ICT. By focusing on the personal networks among the St Petersburg professionals the article seeks to illuminate the role and function of social ties in economic decisions. What are their significant social relations like? What kinds of resources get distributed through these ties? Answering these questions helps both to refine the notion of the ‘social embeddedness’ of economic action and to shed light on the nature of the new Russian economy.     

Organizational transparency and power in firm ownership networks

When public institutions do not support information disclosure and contract enforcement, controlling owners may compensate by setting up ownership networks that facilitate the exchange of resources and alignment of interests. We examine how firms’ controlling owners draw power from ownership networks to provide access to resources for or to expropriate resources from their firms. Horizontal power originates from network centrality and is associated with resource access whereas vertical power originates from principal-principal agency conflicts and is associated with exploitation of minority shareholders. We highlight the impact of horizontal and vertical power through their interaction effects with transparency and disclosure (TD) practices on fixed investments and performance in Russian firms. We find that TD and horizontal power or connectedness are substitutes, while whereas TD and vertical power are complements in their effects on fixed investment and firm performance. Without a strong commitment to TD, powerful owners may thus deprive the firm of productive investments.     

电力消费与经济增长关系的实证研究——以河北省为例

电力以其清洁高效的特质在河北省经济社会发展中发挥着越来越重要的作用.以1995-2010年间河北省电力消费总量和实际地区生产总值两组数据为基础,运用协整理论、误差修正模型和格兰杰因果关系检验等统计计量方法,对1995年以来河北省电力消耗与经济增长之间的关系进行探讨,实证研究表明,尽管河北省电力消费与经济增长的关系在短期内具有一定波动性,但是从长期来看,两者之间存在着稳定的均衡关系,并且互为因果关系.     

Russian Business Interests and the Enlarged European Union

The European Union is Russia's most important partner in foreign economic activities. With its eastward enlargement in 2004 the European Union has—not only in geographical terms—moved even closer to Russia. It should be expected that strong economic ties cause Russian business interests to influence related matters of foreign policy. This study therefore starts by identifying Russian business interests vis-a-vis the EU. Apart from those businesses already heavily involved in transactions with the EU, businesses with ambitious plans for future engagement and businesses which face heavy competition from EU companies are also included. In a second step these business interests are then analysed in detail. The specific interests of Russian companies are depicted to establish the points of conflict with EU positions. The article then describes how Russian companies lobby their government in order to gain support and how the Russian government reacts. The result is a more detailed assessment of the role of Russian business in Russia's policy towards the EU.     

Anatomy of Russia’s market segmentation1

Based on a relationship between price difference and demand difference among locations, the role of various market frictions in causing segmentation of the Russian goods market is analysed. The spatial sample covers most of Russian regions (70 of the 89); the data are annual, spanning 1992 to 2000. Spatial disconnectedness of regions is found to be responsible for about 70 percent of the average price differential, while the rest is caused by ‘artificial’ impediments to market integration such as regional protectionism, organized crime and intra‐region shipping conditions.     

The role of the executive in Russian budget formation

Abstract

The article provides an examination of the role of Russia’s dual (semi-presidential) executive in the budget process. The Constitution gives the president a strategic role, leaving operational budget formation to the ‘government’, chaired by the prime minister, whereas the common view of Russian policy making is of the president’s ‘hands-on management’. The article looks at how the president engages in the budget process, and whether, on the one hand, excessive ‘hands-on’ presidential involvement leads to a disrupted policy process, or, on the other hand, it breaks down the inter-agency deadlocks that are common in Russian policy making. The conclusion is that a reasonable balance is found between the two.     

背诵是有效掌握俄语语法的良策

本文强调背诵在俄语语法熟练过程中的作用,使俄语专业学生通过背诵掌握枯燥的俄语语法规则,并且灵活地掌握俄语语言的内在表达规律,早日形成俄语学习的坚实的基本技能。     

Asymmetric Information and the Russian Individual Savings Market

The article considers the influence of informational imperfections on the performance of the Russian financial market. The focus is on the individual savings market, which exhibits inefficiencies, including those associated with the market power of a dominant agent—Sberbank. Reinforcement of Sberbank's dominance on the market in the period 1994‐98 (before the August default combined with financial crisis) is explained as a consequence of asymmetric information about the probability of bankruptcy of a new bank. Under asymmetric information a new private bank has to provide specific quality signals in order to attract depositors. Two major lines of inquiry are the criteria for choosing forms of savings, including that of a bank in which to deposit money, by Russian citizens, and banks' advertising strategies to confirm the factual risk of default. Within the conceptual framework of a game with separating equilibrium, we analyse the behaviour of the agents on both supply and demand sides in the market. We find that there is evidence of using advertising as a tool of quality signalling at a certain phase of the Russian individual savings market's development.     

Does competition influence bank failures?

There has been a notable debate in the banking literature on the impact of bank competition on financial stability. The aim of this article is to provide the first investigation of the role of bank competition on the occurrence of bank failures. We analyse this issue on a large sample of Russian banks for the period 2001–2007, as the Russian banking industry is a unique example of an emerging market which has undergone a large number of bank failures during the last decade. Our findings support the view that tighter bank competition enhances the occurrence of bank failures. Thus, measures that increase bank competition could undermine financial stability.     

河南省绿色农业发展中政府行为分析

基于河南绿色农业发展的实际,考虑到政府管理的必要性,于是立足在政府这个核心主体的角度,对河南省绿色农业发展过程中的政府行为影响状况进行具体分析,探讨政府所起的作用及其行为失效问题和原因,其中政府行为失效问题具体表现为：宣传教育不到位,有关法律法规不健全,财政支持力度不够大,绩效评价体系不完善等。之后为政府相关部门提出了相应的建议对策。     

The Role of the Safety Net and the Labor Market on Falling Cash Consumption in Russia: 1994–96 A Quintile-Based Decomposition Analysis

This paper investigates the relative importance of changes in social safety net support and labor market in explaining the decline in the purchasing power of Russian households that occurred during the period 1994–96. Drawing on three cross-sections of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, we find that labor market changes have been the main cause of the observed decline in cash consumption. Among these changes, reductions in the impact of the time spent in employment and increasing frequency of wage arrears are most important, more so than increases in open unemployment or the fall in real wages among workers who were fully paid. The contribution of falling state transfers to cash consumption is nonetheless substantial. We also find that the sources of the decline in household welfare vary substantially across quintiles in the distribution.     

论低碳产业集群的动力机制——基于省级面板数据的实证分析

发展低碳产业集群对于实现中国低碳经济目标有着极其重大的作用。本文论述了我国低碳产业集群动力机制的内涵,认为可持续发展观念是低碳产业集群的思想基础,政府的政策和制度创新对产业集群企业和公众的低碳活动起着激励作用,经济绩效是低碳产业集群的直接动力,技术创新是低碳产业集群发展的关键因素;而国内外低碳环境的压力和产业集群外公众的市场取舍与监督构成了外部动力。各种动力互相配合作用,推动了低碳产业集群快速发展。