HSE Seminar on Political Economy: Olga Valisyeva (Economics Research Institute, Far East RAS) about the effect of elite fragmentation in autocracies on the influence of resource abundance on the economic growth

Olga Valisyeva used the political variation across sub-national regions of the Russian Federation under Vladimir Putin to understand how differences in the extent of elite fragmentation in autocracies affects the influence of resource abundance on the economic growth in the short run. She found that polities with fragmented elites underperform those with consolidated elites and link this effect to higher intensity of rent-seeking and higher costs of fights over rents due to the shorter time horizon of the elites.

Topic: Varieties of Authoritarianism Matter: Elite Fragmentation, Natural Resources and Economic Growth

joint work with  Alexander Libman (Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, ICSID HSE)

Abstract: A broad literature suggests that political regimes matter for the growth effect of natural resources. However, while several studies have concentrated on the difference between democracies and autocracies in this respect, an important topic overlooked so far is the differences between varieties of authoritarian regimes. This study uses the political variation across sub-national regions of the Russian Federation under Vladimir Putin to understand how differences in the extent of elite fragmentation in autocracies affects the influence of resource abundance on the economic growth in the short run. We find that polities with fragmented elites underperform those with consolidated elites and link this effect to higher intensity of rent-seeking and higher costs of fights over rents due to the shorter time horizon of the elites.

the joint seminar of Higher School of Economics on political economy, International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development (ICSID) and NES Center for the Study of Diversity and Social Interaction (NES CSDSI) was held on October 16.

Moderators:Alexei Zakharov (HSE),Konstantin Sonin (HSE, The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy)