GIOVANNI SALVINI e FABIO CERABOLINI

Baratto e arretrati nell'economia russa: 

un ostacolo al processo di transizione

N. 189

Summary - The Russian financial crisis of August 1998 manifested the incoherence of the transition path adopted by the government. Macroeconomic stabilization, price and trade liberalization and privatization of state enterprises constituted the key elements of its strategy. But unlike the others countries of Central Europe, these measures were not sufficient to grant the establishment of a real market economy. On the contrary, since 1995, there has been a continuous increase in the use of non-monetary transactions alongside the accumulation of arrears in the economy. This paper analyzes the causes of this phenomenon and underlines its most negative consequences: attenuation of financial discipline, return to the "soft budget constraint" system, fall of fiscal revenues, increase in transaction costs. Arrears, barter and monetary surrogates enable the enterprise system to redistribute financial resources as a selfprotecting device against market rules. The failure of this transition strategy suggests the inadequacy of any approach not related to the peculiarities of the Russian economy and economic culture (path dependence). More emphasis should be devoted to the development of new institutions, formal and informal, necessary to market behaviors alongside the creation of new enterprises.