Coercion After Serfdom? Market Frictions, Institutional Constraints, and Russian Economic Development, 1861 – 1914 (with Dmitrii Kofanov and Viktor Malein)

Did the reforms of the 1860s + other market distortions generate impediments to the optimal allocation of agricultural factors in the Russian Empire? This is a key question in the broader debate over the constraints Imperial Russia faced as it moved slowly towards a modern industrial economy. In this paper, we outline possible sources of distortions – including persistent local coercion and market power – in peasant labor (and land) decisions that plausibly hindered structural change and agricultural development. After describing the relevant institutional history and surveying evidence on peasant labor mobility, we discuss potential approaches for evaluating the extent of distortions in late Imperial rural labor markets, and we highlight our ongoing work generating the necessary data and executing these possibilities. This project addresses broader questions of structural change that are central to Russian economic history.

 

 

Steven Nafziger is an economic historian of the Russian Empire and early Soviet Union, Professor Nafziger has published papers in The Review of Economics and Statistics, The Economic Journal, the American Political Science Review, and in numerous economic history journals on topics related to the political and economic development of the region, including serfdom, the structure of local government, industrialization, financial development, and rural unrest. He is currently a co-PI on the NSF-funded Cliometrics Conference grant and is Co-Editor of the European Review of Economic History.