REGIONAL VARIATIONS ON RUSSIAN CHAOS - PRICE CONTROLS, REGIONAL TRADEBARRIERS, AND OTHER NEOCLASSICAL ABOMINATIONS

Conventional economic ''transition'' policies work poorly in developin g economies, but produce disastrous results when applied within the co ntext of Soviet-type economic and social institutions. There are clear structural reasons which take account of the very different ''embedde d'' relationships and make the current crisis in the Russian Republic explicable, if not easily remediable, Analyses of the regional differe nces in the economic and social measures adopted to try to buffer the negative effects of national level ''shock'' policies and the pervasiv e resistance to decollectivization of agriculture are used by this pap er as tools to explore the operating-level implications of the mismatc h between the macro-level policies adopted under the name of economic reform and the economic and social behavior induced by them at the ope rating-level. Elsevier Science Ltd. (C) 1996 The Regents of the Univer sity of California.