Markets Versus Hierarchies: A Political Economy of Russia from the 10th Century to 2008 (The Locke Institute)

Ekaterina Brancato illustrates from a transaction cost perspective how hierarchies influenced the structure of markets and behaviour of individual businesses and cartels in pre-revolutionary, Soviet and present-day Russia. She exposes the devastating effects of self-interested decision making of the government officials on economic growth, and highlights the inefficiencies of the legal system in Russia. Rent-seeking under autocratic and pseudo-democratic conditions is also explored.