Article

 

Growth and Technological Change in the Russian Economy: a Contribution to the Investigation of Russia’s Economic Crisis (p.39-62)

by

George E. Economakis, University of the Aegean (Greece)

John G. Milios, National Technical University of Athens

Leonidas Maroudas, University of the Aegean (Greece)

Panayotis G. Michaelides, National Technical University of Athens

Vassilis Aggelis, University of the Aegean (Greece)

Keywords : Russia, Cobb-Douglas, growth accounting, technology, crisis, recovery

JEL classification : P26, O10

Abstract

The present paper uses the “growth accounting” methodology to estimate technological change, in an attempt to formulate an explanation of Russia’s economic decline and signs of recovery in the period 1992-1999 in relation to technological change. The results do show that, despite the general economic collapse during the 1990s rooted in the very structure of the Soviet economy, the level of technology has practically remained unchanged which, in turn, prevented the Russian Economy from further deteriorating. Our empirical findings also show that the Russian economy tended to be a labour-intensive economy and this, possibly, explains the limited unemployment in the crisis period. We investigate these findings in relation to the type of class coalitions within Russian social formation. In this paper, we also examine the structural characteristics of the particular post-soviet form of socio-economic organization, in order to shed some light on the Russian economy’s evolution during the first years of transition.