Is Economic Reform Popular at the Polls: Russia 1995

Abstract

This paper presents evidence that Russian regions that pursued greater microeconomic reforms (small-scale privatization and price liberalization) as of Autumn 1995 also tended to support pro-reform parties in the December 1995 parliamentary elections. This positive association is not eliminated by controlling for urbanization, economic distress, education attainment, wage arrears, natural resource endowments, or poverty rates. The idea that causality may run from reform to support for reform is strengthened by instrumental variables estimation using a measure of regional decision-making autonomy (republic status) as an instrument for the privatization variable.

JEL Classification: P2, D72