On the Role of Big Business in the Modern Russian Economy (A Comment on the World Bank Report)

Abstract

The paper considers critically the methodology and main conclusions of the World Bank study on the concentration of ownership and control in the Russian economy. The authors discuss methodological problems of the study and stress its importance for understanding trends of economic development in Russia in the last years. At the same time the risks of market monopolization and "state capture" by the biggest private companies are overestimated in the World Bank report. Recent economic growth has been closely connected with the activity of leading financial-industrial groups. For successful economic development Russia — as a big country but a small economy — needs new large companies able to compete in the global market. For "growing" of such businesses the country requires institutions of development and new industrial policy taking into account successful experience of the middle-income countries like Chile, Israel, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea.