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This paper aims to measure the cost of procurement because public procurement procedures prescribed by legislation not only enhance transparency and competition but also entail certain transaction costs for both customers and suppliers.

These costs are important to the efficiency of the procurement system. However, very few previous studies have focused on estimating procurement costs. This paper proposes a methodology for public procurement cost evaluation.

This paper shows how procurement costs can be calculated using a formalized survey of public customers. This methodology was tested with a representative group of public customers operating in one region of the Russian Federation.

The authors formulate the policy implications of this paper, as they relate to the improvement of public procurement regulations and argue that this methodological approach can be applied in other developing and transitioning economies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the links between investment activity and personal contacts for small- and medium-sized firms with public officials at the subnational level in Russia.

A list-experiment design, using a survey of 21,000 Russian firms in 2017, was used to evaluate the importance of personal connections with officials for conducting business.

A total of 27% of firms without investment and 37% with investment considered personal connections with officials an important factor for doing business. The importance of such contacts was lower in regions with a better investment climate. However, a higher proportion of firms were likely to invest in the regions where higher importance was placed on political connections. Therefore, in Russia in the mid-2010s, investment from politically connected firms did not crowd out investment from other firms.

Although the available data did not allow causality to be defined, the research shows that political connections are important for investors in emerging markets and that the importance of political connections diminishes with improvement in the business climate.

This paper provides a quantitative estimate of the relationship between political connections and firm investment in Russia, an example of large emerging economy. This relationship is moderated by institutional quality at the subnational level. The results provide empirical support for the theory of limited access orders elaborated by North et al. (2009), and stress the importance of rents and their productive utilization for the development of emerging economies.

In this paper, we regard public procurement as an instrument used by the government for indirect support of enterprises. In this context, we have investigated the place that public procurement occupy in statebusiness interrelations. Using data from a large survey of Russian manufacturing enterprises conducted in 2009 we show that in Russia public procurement cannot be regarded as a component in the system of exchanges, and the extent of combination between direct and indirect support depends on the level of government. At the federal level direct and indirect instruments of government support complement each other. At the regional and local levels the effect of mutual complementation can be observed only in relations with firms, which conceal information about their ownership structure and are supposedly affiliated with regional and local bureaucrats. In relations with other firms at regional and local levels direct and indirect support substitutes each other.

FOR some years the writer of this article has carefully studied the scanty and conflicting information available on the aircraft of the U.S.S.R. and the organization of both military and civil aeronautics. It has been our policy to publish, whenever possible, articles giving accurate—if of necessity limited—details of Russian developments. In this respect we would point out to readers that the contents of this present article may appear somewhat conservative, because only undoubted facts have been presented and, as such, it offers a commentary upon the mixture of fanciful propaganda and restricted information available—a fact which we have had to mention on each previous occasion that we have published a similar article.— EDITOR

The main aim of this paper is to examine the role of the board of directors in Russia with specific attention to their independence, employee relations and ability of successful adaptation of the international standards.

The authors used a survey questionnaire to provide an empirical example from a transition economy to the corporate governance literature by exploring the attitudes of the 55 board directors from 30 listed companies on the Russian Trading System (RTS) Stock Exchange.

The respondents recognise the board of directors as an important instrument of efficient and good corporate governance practice. More surprisingly, they are also in favour of employee representatives on the board of directors and agree that board size and composition should be enhanced by employee representatives on the board.

Even though 200 questionnaires were distributed and the response rate was 28 per cent, the authors know that they cannot generalise results for all directors of 1,414 listed companies on the Russian Trading System Stock Exchange from this level of response. In addition, questions might have some elements of subjectivity.

Policy makers in Russia should continue reforms in Russian corporate governance to improve transparency and accountability to adopt international standards and to attract foreign capital.

This study is one of the most comprehensive studies to explain the role of directors of listed companies in corporate governance throughout a survey questionnaire in Russia. The authors believe that the study contributes to the literature in two ways: theoretically by examining the attitudes of Russian listed company directors in the literature and empirically by conducting a survey among listed companies' directors to evaluate the attitudes of boards of directors, and employee relations in Russia.

Continues an examination of the Gorbechev era (1985‐91) in Soviet development as an example of a movement towards a more democratized form of Soviet‐style socialism. An earlier artilce focused on underlying causes and origins of this democratized version of Soviet socialism and its institutions and policy measures. Extends analysis of the Gorbachev period to consideration of its economic and political consequences and its tensions and contradictions, leading to disintegration of the Soviet politico‐economic system.

Operating out of a Slavophile tradition, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn offers a critique of both Soviet and Western societies that is comprehensive and damning. A review of his writings reveals a profound rejection of many core values and practices of Western civilization. What is viewed as an aberrant Soviet experience is understood as but a logical extension of developments in the West. Solzhenitsyn′s prescription for an identified Soviet and Western moral bankruptcy draws on past Russian Orthodox thinking and practices. Playing to Russian collectivist and conservative instincts, he venerates an idyllic Russian rural setting; but that setting has little relevance to contemporary Soviet reality. Ironically, Solzhenitsyn′s strong reformist inclinations are not unlike those of many reformers now championing change in a post‐Soviet Russia. But his stated political and economic preferences place him solidly in the ranks of contemporary Russian nationalist extremists, making him a leading figure for those promoting a return to earlier authoritarian Russian practices.

THIS paper is not intended to provide any startling revelations of Soviet technology but is a detailed survey and analysis of contemporary developments in Soviet turbine powered transport aircraft. The major portion of the work is based on Soviet sources of information in an attempt to assure authenticity and accuracy.