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on Confederation of Independent States |
| By: | Klein, Margarete; Stewart, Susan |
| Abstract: | Since 2022, the Russian leadership has significantly expanded its activities in the area of military-patriotic education for children and young people. New compulsory measures and voluntary programmes have been introduced. Their apparent diversity notwithstanding, the Kremlin has strict control over these new measures and programmes. Its goal is to educate the next generation in accordance with the Russian leadership's line, recruit loyal young people for the regime and the armed forces, and identify at an early stage those who might become critics of the regime. The new measures cover a growing number of children and young people and now extend even to kindergartens. Those affected respond with enthusiasm, indifference or opportunism. Overt resistance is evident only in isolated cases owing to the heavy pressure to conform and the repressive nature of the regime. |
| Keywords: | military-patriotic education in Russia, Kremlin, pressure to conform, repressive regime, Vladimir Putin, Sergei Shoigu |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:swpcom:333592 |
| By: | Simola, Heli |
| Abstract: | Applying the most recent international input-output tables, we examine potential short-term effects of various demand shocks on the Russian economy. Our analysis suggests that a reduction of 1 % in Chinese final demand results in a 0.1 % decline in Russian GDP. Similarly, a 10 % contraction in Russian oil production causes a a GDP decline of 1.6 %, while a contraction in oil refining activity leads to a GDP drop of 0.8 %. We also illustrate that Russia could achieve higher growth by reallocating public spending to non-military purposes, but maintaining military capability is a political priority for Russia's regime. |
| Keywords: | Russia, China, oil, input-output |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:bofitb:333956 |
| By: | Egamberdiev, Bekhzod; Khamidov, Imomjon; Abdushukurov, Jasurbek |
| Abstract: | Environmental problems negatively affect air quality, biodiversity, and socio-economic life in Central Asia. The problems have a slow, gradual, and intense nature; therefore, detecting or following changes in human experience is challenging. This manuscript uses the Life in Transition dataset to analyse climate change awareness and willingness to mitigate among populations from Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Our findings confirm that public perceptions of environmental problems differ, showing the highest concern about air pollution, waste, species loss, temperature, natural disasters, and the spread of disease in Uzbekistan and the Kyrgyz Republic. However, awareness or concern about environmental problems in Tajikistan is relatively low. Although people are ready to contribute to climate change mitigation, citizens from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are less willing to contribute. From a policy point of view, understanding societal concerns about climate change and considering willingness to contribute are important to implementing the climatic policy. |
| Keywords: | environmental problems, climate change, public perception, willingness to contribute, Central Asia |
| JEL: | D70 P48 Q54 Q56 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126690 |
| By: | Abdrakhmanova, Maria; Gluschenko, Konstantin |
| Abstract: | A spatially dispersed market for a tradable good is deemed integrated if there are no barriers to trade between its spatial segments (except for geographical barriers, namely distances between the segments). However, perfectly integrated markets are not a common case; real markets deviate to some extent from this ideal state. Therefore, estimating a degree of integration is more helpful then an answer of the type “all or nothing” (whether the market is integrated or not integrated). In an integrated market, price for a good is determined in the national market as a whole, not depending on demand in its spatial segments. Hence, a dependence of local price on local demand (controlling for transportation costs) indicates a deviation from perfect integration, and its “strength” can measure the degree of market integration. Based on this idea, we estimate the annual integration degrees of the US market for an aggregated good (grocery basket) over 15 years, 2001–2015. The spatial segments are cities; our sample covers 66 cities from 39 states of the US. The results suggest that the US market is not perfectly integrated; however, the integration degree of the US market is fairly stable over time. We also compare results for the US with results of a similar study for Russia. With a reservation that the empirical material is not fully comparable, we can conclude that the US market is integrated more strongly than the Russian market and that the integration degree in Russia is more volatile. |
| Keywords: | Spatial market integration Price dispersion Law of one price United States |
| JEL: | L81 R15 R19 |
| Date: | 2025–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126643 |
| By: | Abid, Senan |
| Abstract: | This study analyzes the determinants and dynamics of military spending in the Middle East within the framework of critical political economy, based on data covering the period (1995-2023). The analysis combines approaches from political economy, the rentier-authoritarian state theory, and critical geopolitics to explain the link between armament, authoritarian structures, and international alliances rather than objective security threats. The findings suggest that the persistently high levels of military spending in the region are largely used as instruments to maintain power structures and sustain strategic alliances, rather than merely to enhance defense capabilities. The diversification of arms suppliers toward Russia and China appears not to have reduced dependency but instead to have added further logistical and strategic complexity. The study also indicates a tendency toward a negative association between military spending and the indicators of democracy, development, and political stability, highlighting the prevailing priority of "regime security" over "state security." Overall, the paper argues that patterns of armament in the Middle East reflect a hybrid political- economic configuration that perpetuates the security dilemma at both the regional and international levels. |
| Keywords: | Political Economy, Military Spending, Middle East, Rentier State, Authoritarianism, Security Dilemma, Geopolitics, International Alliances |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cessdp:333942 |
| By: | Kimsanova, Barchynai; Herzfeld, Thomas |
| Keywords: | Agricultural and Food Policy, Political Economy, Demand and Price Analysis |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aaea24:343596 |
| By: | Guillem Blasco-Piles (Universitat de Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first aggregate and disaggregated comprehensive Total Factor Productivity estimates for manufacturing in the Ottoman, Qing and Russian Empires before their collapse, incorporating both the traditional industry and capital estimates. Previous studies relied on modern-only establishments and labor productivity estimates, masking the role of capital and inner economic dynamics, which become essential during structural transformation processes. Using industrial censuses from 1908-1913 and regional reports combined with a novel reconstruction methodology for the traditional industry TFP, our results document extreme internal productivity dualism. Mechanized establishments achieved close to British efficiency levels while traditional non-mechanized plants operated at one-fifth to one-third of the industrial leader. At the aggregate level, lower-productivity traditional establishments seem to determine the aggregate productivity due to their vast weight in the manufacturing landscape. These findings suggest the persistence of the Great Divergence stemmed not from technological adoption incapacity but from the inability to diffuse new technologies beyond modern industrial enclaves—a pattern that illuminates persistent dualism in developing economies today. |
| Keywords: | Empires, Industrialization, Total Factor Productivity, Traditional Industry, Dualism |
| JEL: | L16 L60 N10 N60 O33 O47 O57 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hes:wpaper:0291 |