Application of Minsky's Theory to State-Dominated Economies

EUSP Department of Economics Working Paper Series, Ref.: 2014/03

27 Pages Posted: 19 Mar 2020 Last revised: 14 Nov 2020

See all articles by Yulia Vymyatnina

Yulia Vymyatnina

European University at St. Petersburg (EUSP) - Department of Economics

Mikhail Pakhnin

University of the Balearic Islands; Université d'Évry - Centre D'Etudes des Politiques Economiques et de L'Emploi (EPEE)

Date Written: July 23, 2014

Abstract

The global financial crisis of 2007–2008, consequences of which continue to adversely affect the world economy, is often called a «Minsky crisis». A prominent American economist Hyman Philip Minsky studied capitalist economic system paying special attention to its major properties, in particular, instability and high importance of money. He developed a consistent way to explain the nature of economic crises, which, according to him, are generated through financial mechanisms. Minsky's financial instability hypothesis states that the fragility of financial system increases in periods of booms and thus crises arise from the very structure of business cycles.

In this paper we give a short review of Minsky’s ideas and show that the last financial crisis could be persuasively explained in the framework of financial instability hypothesis. Moreover, we provide the extension of Minsky’s hypothesis and apply his insights to the «state-dominated economies». Interesting and vivid examples of such economies are modern Russian economy (characterized by weak institutions, resource curse and dominance of state-related companies in the financial as well as non-financial sectors) and planned economy of the Soviet Union. We analyze the financial crisis 2008–2009 in Russia and the breakdown of the USSR and argue that these events could be interpreted along Minsky’s line of argument.

Keywords: Hyman Minsky, Financial Crisis, Financial Instability Hypothesis, Endogenous Money, Planned Economies, Fall of the USSR, Theory of Money, Business Cycles, Minsky Moment

JEL Classification: B50, E12, E32, E42, E44, E5, E60, G01, P2

Suggested Citation

Vymyatnina, Yulia and Pakhnin, Mikhail, Application of Minsky's Theory to State-Dominated Economies (July 23, 2014). EUSP Department of Economics Working Paper Series, Ref.: 2014/03, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3543129 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3543129

Yulia Vymyatnina (Contact Author)

European University at St. Petersburg (EUSP) - Department of Economics ( email )

3 Gagarinskaya Street
St. Petersburg, 191187
Russia

Mikhail Pakhnin

University of the Balearic Islands ( email )

Crtra. Valldemossa, km 7.5
Palma de Mallorca, Illles Balears 07122
Spain

HOME PAGE: http://www.mpakhnin.com

Université d'Évry - Centre D'Etudes des Politiques Economiques et de L'Emploi (EPEE) ( email )

23 Boulevard Francois Mitterrand
Evry, 91000
France

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