Lessons from the Russian Meltdown
The Economics of Soft Legal Constraints
CEPR Policy Paper No. 9
Enrico C Perotti
Universiteit van Amsterdam and CEPR
Centre for Economic Policy Research
The Centre for Economic Policy Research is a network of 600 Research Fellows and Affiliates, based
primarily in European universities. The Centre coordinates the research activities of its Fellows and
Affiliates and communicates the results to the public and private sectors. CEPR is an entrepreneur,
developing research initiatives with the producers, consumers and sponsors of research. Established in
1983, CEPR is a European economics research organization with uniquely wide-ranging scope and
activities.
CEPR is a registered educational charity. The Centre is supported by the European Central Bank, the
Bank for International Settlements, the European Investment Bank, 23 national central banks and 41
companies. None of these organizations gives prior review to the Centre’s publications, nor do they
necessarily endorse the views expressed therein.
The Centre is pluralist and non-partisan, bringing economic research to bear on the analysis of
medium- and long-run policy questions. CEPR research may include views on policy, but the
Executive Committee of the Centre does not give prior review to its publications, and the Centre
takes no institutional policy positions. The opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors
and not those of the Centre for Economic Policy Research.
Executive Committee
Chair Guillermo de la Dehesa
Vice Chair Hans de Gier
Villy Bergström Denis Gromb Michael Saunders
Jan Krysztof Bielecki Marc Hendriks Kermit Schoenholtz
Diane Coyle Bengt Holmström Miguel Sebastián Gascón
Kevin Darlington Jan Häggström Andrew Smith
Quentin Davies Giles Keating Juha Tarkka
Bernard Dewe Mathews John Lipsky Philippe Weil
Fernando Fernández Méndez Sergio Lugaresi
de Andes Gerard Lyons
David Folkerts-Landau Sanjit Maitra
Francesco Giavazzi Rafael Repullo
Officers
President Richard Portes
Chief Executive Officer Hilary Beech
Research Director Mathias Dewatripont
Centre for Economic Policy Research
90-98 Goswell Road
London EC1V 7RR
UK
Tel: (44 20) 7878 2900 Fax: (44 20) 7878 2999
Email: cepr@cepr.org Website: www.cepr.org
© Centre for Economic Policy Research September 2002
Contents
Foreword v
Executive Summary vii
1. Introduction 1
2. Main trends of the Russian economy, 1992-2001 5
3. Rational collective non-compliance in Russia 11
3.1 Stabilization policy 12
3.2 The cash-stripping economy 12
3.3 Enterprises 13
3.4 Taxation 14
3.5 Barter 14
3.6 Banks and banking supervision 15
4. What is to be done? (Chto delat’?) 19
5. Conclusions 22
Appendix: A formal model of rational collective non-compliance 25
References 27
List of Figures
Figure 1: Rouble exchange rates 1
Figure 2: Russian capital market prices 2
Figure 3: Capital flight 4
Figure 4: Real payables overdue and tax arrears 5
Figure 5: Inflation and savings 6
Figure 6: Dynamics of payables, receivables and wage arrears 6
Figure 7: The crowding out effect of government debt 7
Figure 8: Real GDP 7
Figure 9: Banking assets before and after the crisis 8
Figure 10: The structure of private deposits 8
Figure 11: GDP growth in a year following the financial crisis 1997-8
(selected countries) 9
Figure 12: Foreign debt exposure and CKO holdings of Russian banks 16
Figure 13: Russian banks with the largest forward positions 16
Figure 14: Number of bank licenses withdrawn under prudential supervision 17
Figure 15: Overall average institutional quality index 22
Foreword
On 17 August 1998 Russia abandoned its exchange rate regime, defaulted on its
domestic public debt and declared a moratorium on banks’ foreign liabilities. This
was equivalent to an outright default. The depth and speed of the Russian meltdown
shocked the international markets and precipitated a period of serious financial
instability. There are important lessons to be learned from this episode on issues of
bank supervision and international stability. Enrico Perotti locates the underlying
cause of the crisis in the structure of individual incentives in a context of capture of
state decisions by special interests. The author concludes with a radical policy
proposal for a stable banking system for Russia, based on a segmented, narrow
banking sector, concentration on commercial banking and a cautious extension of
deposit insurance.
We are grateful for the efforts of Enrico Perotti in preparing this report and to the
CEPR staff members whose hard work and professionalism have ensured its
successful execution - in particular to Publications Assistant, Michael Kelly.
HILARY BEECH
31 August 2002
As for all CEPR publications, the views expressed here are those of the author and do not reflect the views of
CEPR, which takes no institutional position.
Executive Summary
On 17 August 1998 Russia abandoned its exchange rate regime, defaulted on its
domestic public debt and declared a moratorium on all private foreign liabilities,
which was equivalent to an outright default. The depth and speed of the Russian
meltdown shocked the international markets and precipitated a period of serious
financial instability. Important lessons on issues of bank supervision and
international stability can be learned by understanding the roots of such a crisis.
The visible reason for the crisis was an unsustainable fiscal deficit coupled with
massive capital flight. But what were the underlying causes? We argue that the
structure of individual incentives in a context of capture of state decisions by special
interests, compounded by a rouble overvaluation driven by exceptional international
support, helps explain the build-up of non-payment, theft and capital flight leading
to the crisis. We offer an explicit model of rational collective non-compliance, cashstripping
and rational collective non-payment, which led to the fiscal and banking
crisis and ultimately to a complete meltdown. In our view, the banking sector was
already insolvent before the crisis, and contributed directly and indirectly to it. We
conclude with a radical policy proposal for a stable banking system for Russia, based
on a segmented, narrow banking sector, concentration on commercial banking and a
cautious extension of deposit insurance.
I thank Jerome Sgard, Charles Wyplosz, Erik Berglöf, Julian Franks, Tatiana
Paramonova, Michael Fuchs, Bill Alexander, Julia Shvets, Stijn Claessens, Marina
Malyutina, several referees, and participants at presentations at the Economic Policy
Panel in Paris, the EBRD, the IMF, LSE and ECARES. Work on this Paper has been
supported by the EU's TACIS programme.
1. Introduction
On Monday 17 August 1998 the Russian authorities unilaterally declared a
moratorium on all rouble-denominated public debt and suspended all private foreign
obligations. This amounted to a de facto default by the government and the banking
system. The rouble rapidly lost two-thirds of its value against the dollar (Figure 1).
This was followed by a liquidity crisis and runs on many banks. The shock created by
these measures developed into a full-scale international crisis of confidence, with
credit spreads widening sharply in all markets and briefly raising doubts about global
financial stability. The shock waves were so strong because no one, not even the
most sceptical observers, had anticipated such a complete collapse.1
The Russian collapse had visible macroeconomic causes. It followed an unsustainable
overvaluation of the rouble and a fiscal crisis (Popov, 2000; see also Figure 2). The
rouble became overvalued under an externally supported fixed exchange rate while
being undermined internally by capital flight. Yet the speed, scale and scope of the
financial collapse has challenged observers to seek a specific model of the Russian
financial crisis.
This Paper will argue that while fiscal imbalance and capital flight were the visible
causes of the collapse, its ultimate causes may be understood only by analysing
individual incentives in the political and institutional context of the Yeltsin years.
1
In the end, only a firm intervention by the US Fed restored confidence.
Figure 1: Rouble exchange rates
Source: Central Bank of Russia
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
01/93
07/93
01/94
07/94
01/95
07/95
01/96
07/96
01/97
07/97
01/98
07/98
01/99
07/99
01/00
07/00
01/01
07/01
RealExchangeRateIndex
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
NominalExchangeRate
Real exchange rate, based on CPI, Jan 1993=100 Real exchange rate, based on PPI. Jan 1993 = 100 Nominal exchange rate
2 Introduction
Specifically, it offers a model of rational individual incentives leading to widespread
theft, illegality and tax arrears which supported massive capital flight.
A general consensus has emerged that the failure of microeconomic reforms, which
were at first neglected in favour of macroeconomic policy, undermined stabilization
policy and restructuring (Fischer and Sahay, 2000). Such reforms include
'establishing property rights, hardening budget constraints, building a healthy
banking system, and ensuring true domestic competition' (Wyplosz, 1999).
Essentially, this Paper claims that while Russia ultimately managed to achieve
monetary stabilization, the weak adjustment response coupled with collective noncompliance
with contractual and tax obligations meant that financial imbalances
accumulated throughout the system. The failure to enforce fiscal discipline and
decentralized contracting (necessary in an economy abandoning central planning)
led to strong incentives to strip cash out of old and new Russian institutions.
Appropriated cash flows, in combination with an overvalued rouble, fed capital
flight throughout the period. The failure to collect tax revenues ultimately caused a
fiscal crisis too long delayed by external support.2
This argument shifts the main issue to the question of what explains such a lack of
enforcement. We offer here a model of collective non-compliance arising from poor
credibility of institutions, high adjustment costs relative to Central European
economies and, critically, diffuse cynicism which produces a self-reinforcing
expectation of massive non-compliance. In a systemic adjustment, enforcement
depends critically on a sufficient adjustment response; as a result, expectations are
critical in determining the aggregate outcome. Cynical expectations of the response
by other agents and of the credibility of enforcement may thus produce a critical
Figure 2. Russian Capital Market Prices (Source: the Russian Statistical Agency)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
01/96
07/96
01/97
07/97
01/98
07/98
01/99
07/99
01/00
07/00
01/01
07/01
RTSStockIndex,points
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
GovernmentBondYield,annualized%
RTS stock index Government bonds yield
Figure 2: Russian Capital Market Prices
Source: Russian Statistical Agency
2
For evidence that weak institutions cause financial instability, see Acemoglu et al. (2002).
Introduction 3
mass of non-compliance, which creates an insurmountable barrier to enforcement of
legal and financial obligations.
Our second argument is that state capture seriously weakened the credibility of
enforcement. Although corruption accompanied transition in all countries, its extent
in the Former Soviet Union (FSU) led many authors to describe it as state capture,
with the corrupting agents holding more bargaining power than the corrupted
officials (Hellman, Jones and Kaufmann, 2000).3
A weak political regime under
Yeltsin needed the support of special interests to remain in power, and allowed them
a free rein in plundering state assets and escaping obligations. Such a poor example
from the top affected individual attitudes and expectations among the population
regarding the reliability of legal enforcement and further weakened compliance.
A main conclusion of this Paper is that the foundations of the Russian financial
system were deeply undermined by such perverse incentives, and its eventual
insolvency fed the collapse rather than being a consequence of it. This is consistent
with several cases of insolvency of large banks just before August 1998, as well as
with the results of a large audit study in late 1998, which indicated that bank losses
caused by the fiscal default were secondary (see Section 4).
Many observers recognized that the main aim of Russian banks was never to broker
funds to the real sector, and the amount of intermediated savings is very modest.4
Most Russian banks were kept as empty boxes in which liabilities accumulated; cash
was promptly sent abroad, even moving abroad the main payment system among
Russian companies and among individuals. Firm managers converted corporate assets
into cash in order to appropriate it (asset-stripping), even if they made large losses.
Yet asset-stripping and capital flight were rational, if perverse and corrupt, responses
to the institutional failure of the post-Soviet reforms, and were the direct counterpart
of the non-payment problem.
Consistent with this view, capital flight was not concentrated before the collapse,
unlike more traditional crises, but continued at a steady, massive rate throughout the
1990s. It was particularly high during the 1995-7 stabilization period, a time of large
trade surpluses and high domestic real rates (Loungani and Mauro, 2000; see also
Figure 3).5
This is prima facie evidence that the financial crisis and devaluation were
the final consequence of steady structural outflows rather than mirroring a
progressive fiscal deterioration.6
A challenge to our argument is that other transition and developing countries faced
3
There is evidence that while connected firms benefit relative to others, growth in other firms underperforms the
standards in less captured economies, and the overall growth rate is lower (Hellman, Jones and Kaufmann, 2000).
4
While in Central Europe deposits became accepted as a form of savings, in Russia (and the FSU) the amount of
cash in circulation rose throughout the 1990s from a fraction to over four times total deposits, far above Central
European values (Tang et al., 2000).
5
In Loungani and Mauro's estimate, capital flight per capita was higher in 1996 and 1997 than 1998; the rate of
rouble outflow in real terms is comparable in earlier years.
6
Loungani and Mauro (2000) show that after controlling for fiscal and monetary conditions, a poor record of
implementation of structural reform is associated in transition countries with higher capital flight.
4 Introduction
the same institutional problems as Russia.7
Similar arguments, based on opportunism
and crony capitalism, were put forward for the Asian crisis as well. Why was the
crisis in Russia so deep? In what way was Russia different from, say, Ukraine or
Bulgaria, or even Indonesia?
Russia's fall was spectacular because it had been artificially delayed. Nominal reforms
without real enforcement (what we term soft legal constraints)8
were for too long
tolerated by international institutions keen to see a pro-Western stance survive in
Moscow. Western government loans and the 1996 and 1998 IMF loan programmes
were clear examples of concessionary support and sent powerful signals to investors.
Most countries are not allowed such a long run, and their failures are thus less
spectacular. Furthermore, in few countries were the incentives to strip cash at all
costs as strong and the risk of punishment as feeble as in Russia in the late Yeltsin
period, with its high adjustment costs, gross currency overvaluation and weak
political centre.
The next section offers a brief chronology of the main trends in the Russian
economy during the period of post-communist reforms. Section 3 describes briefly
our model of rational collective non-compliance (the formal model is in the
appendix). Section 4 presents illustrative applications of the model to various
segments of the Russian economy and briefly discusses the aftermath of the crisis.
Section 5 puts forward a radical reform proposal for achieving a stable banking
system in Russia in the light of our analysis.
7
There the macroeconomic picture looked quite different: a large trade deficit, a good fiscal position, large
domestic savings, high investment and growth rates. Yet the degree of financial misallocation (Corsetti, Pesenti
and Roubini, 1998), supported by moral hazard by foreign investors (Corsetti, Pesenti and Roubini, 1999), is
similar.
8
Gelfer, Pistor and Raiser (2000) show that it was not lack of legal text, but of capacity or willingness to enforce,
which determined the unreliability of financial transactions in Russia.
Figure 3. Capital Flight (source: OECD)
-60.00
-50.00
-40.00
-30.00
-20.00
-10.00
0.00
10.00
1994Q1
1995Q1
1996Q1
1997Q1
1998Q1
1999Q1
2000Q1
CapitalFlight(%Exports)
-20.00
-15.00
-10.00
-5.00
0.00
5.00
Non-repatriatesEarnings(%)
Capital flight Capital flight (broad definition) Non-repatriated share of earnings
Figure 3: Capital flight
Source: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
2. Main trends of the Russian economy, 1992-20019
After a period of partial and inconsistent reforms under Gorbachev, the demise of
the Soviet Union in the autumn of 1991 opened the way for an ambitious 'shocktherapy'
programme, launched along lines comparable to the 1990 Polish plan
(Lipton and Sachs, 1992). The Gaidar government tightened credit in January 1992
to encourage microeconomic restructuring, following price liberalization. The critical
phase of this policy required resisting pressures for reflation and compensatory
bailouts, and ultimately forcing real adjustment. In Russia the adjustment response
was insufficient, as most trade bills went unpaid. The policy had collapsed by the
summer, when trade arrears rose to three times total bank credit, and there was a
massive bailout funded by money printing by the Central Bank of Russia (CBR). The
bailout validated collective inertia and led to new cycles of accumulation and bailing
out of arrears (see Figure 4). High inflation in 1992-4, with a monthly inflation rate
of 5-25%, wiped out domestic savings (see Figure 5).
At the same time, under an extremely laissez-faire policy of minimal bank capital
requirements, the number of banks increased rapidly from fewer than ten to over
2,500. Many such 'banks' performed cash management, capital flight and
whitewashing services for enterprises or shadowy organizations, and were at first
mostly speculating against the rouble. Some well-connected banks thrived on
managing the balances of federal or local authorities. Banks also held on to transfer
payments for clients as a form of costless funding, indirectly collecting a large
9
We have drawn from the chronology of events in Perotti-Sgard (2000).
Figure 4. Real Payables Overdue and Tax Arrears (Source: RSA)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
01/94
07/94
01/95
07/95
01/96
07/96
01/97
07/97
01/98
07/98
01/99
07/99
01/00
07/00
01/01
07/01
RealPayablesOverdue,RealTaxArrears(bln1994rub)
Real payments overdue Real tax arrears
Figure 4: Real payables overdue and tax arrears
Source: RSA
inflation tax. Bank supervision performed perfunctorily, monitoring compliance with
the formalities of regulations rather than with their content. Pure Ponzi schemes
became common, such as the large MMM collapse in 1994.
When stabilization policy from 1995 onwards froze the printing presses, there was a
last chance to tighten financial discipline. The number of banks fell briefly as the
CBR adopted a more rigorous supervision policy. The banking lobby in the Duma
opposed tight supervision, however. From 1996 onwards, the supervisory reform
stopped, and the CBR returned to merely cosmetic controls. A weak government,
prey to special interests, shifted to a different form of ex post laxity, substituting
loose enforcement for loose money, condoning non-payment and asset-stripping,
and stoking trouble for later.
Figure 5. Inflation and Savings (Source: CBR)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Savings,%NationalIncome
0
50
100
150
200
250
Inflation,annualized%
Total private savings, national accounting definition Private deposits Inflation
Figure 5: Inflation and savings
Source: CBR
Figure 6. Dynamics of Payables, Receivables and Wage Arrears (Source: RSA)
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
1994Q1
1995Q1
1996Q1
1997Q1
1998Q1
1999Q1
2000Q1
2001Q1
%GDP
Payables Receivables Wage arrears
Figure 6: Dynamics of payables, receivables and wage arrears
Source: RSA
6 Main trends of the Russian economy, 1992-2001
Main trends of the Russian economy, 1992-2001 7
Figure 7. The Crowding Out Effect Of Government Debt (Source: OECD, RSA)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998
CommercialBankCredit(%GDP),Barter(%ofvolumeof
transactions)
-25
-15
-5
5
15
25
35
45
55
65
GKOYield
Commercial bank credit to the non-financial sector Volume of barter Real GKO yield
Figure 7: The crowding out effect of government debt
Source: OECD, RSA
So banks were allowed to operate on the edge of insolvency, but they were by no
means alone. While stabilization policy stopped the destruction of financial
obligations via inflation, enterprises kept accumulating trade, tax and wage arrears
(see Figures 4 and 6).
Nominal stabilization was maintained by shifting from inflationary financing to
issuing rouble-denominated public bonds at high yields (see Figure 7). Intermediated
rouble assets for the first time offered better returns than mattress dollars. As the risk
of a communist victory at the 1996 presidential elections disappeared, a number of
private banks competed for deposits with Sberbank, a former Soviet retail monopoly
and the only retail bank enjoying deposit insurance. In 1997 there were signs of
growth in intermediation to enterprises.10
The stock market boomed, as foreign
brokers interpreted the low price/earnings ratios of Russian stocks as a buying
opportunity, rather than a reflection of non-existent minority rights. Thanks to
falling interest rates and strong inflows, in 1997 the economic growth rate was
marginally positive (Figure 8).
The window of opportunity was doomed to close rapidly. The pressure of increasing
budget deficits caused by tax arrears and weak oil prices resulted in a rapid
accumulation of government debt. The government bond market paid very high
rates in real terms, which further encouraged cash-stripping and tax arrears. Banks
took advantage of stabilization and the progressive overvaluation of the rouble by
borrowing abroad to invest on the GKO (Russian government bonds) market and
feeding capital flight.
The CBR's withdrawal from offering currency forward contracts in 1997 led
commercial banks to insure, on a massive scale, foreign investors eager to hedge
their rouble risk. While the exchange rate held, this offered huge profits with no real
10
Ex post, much lending appeared to have been granted either within bank-controlled groups or through
personal relationships.
downside, since the banks had no assets to back up these claims after devaluation. In
essence, they were offering insurance they had no plans to honour.
The difficulty of refinancing the booming stock of short-term public debt was
compounded by the Asian crisis and falling oil prices in late 1997. A new
government was formed in March 1998 with a mandate to restore fiscal
responsibility. Because of its political weakness, its few reforms went
unimplemented, tax collection did not improve and capital kept flowing steadily
abroad. Several large private banks, such as Tokobank and SBS-Agro, became visibly
insolvent. Only the arrival of the first tranche of an IMF loan delayed the final
meltdown.11
Figure 9. Banking assets before and after the crisis (Source:CBR)
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
TotalAssetsoftheBankingSystem(blnUSD)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
VolumeofPrivateDeposits(blnUSD)
Total assets of the banking system Volume of private deposits in commercial banks
Figure 9: Banking assets before and after the crisis
Source: CBR
Figure 8. Real GDP (Source: RSA)
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
105
110
1994Q1
1995Q1
1996Q1
1997Q1
1998Q1
1999Q1
2000Q1
2001Q1
RealGDPIndex
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
RealGDPGrowtrhRate
Real GDP, seasonaly adjusted (1994 Q1=100) Real GDP annualized growth rate
Figure 8: Real GDP
Source: RSA
11
Yet even the average Russian investor turned out to be a bit naïve; Perotti and Sgard (2000) argued that Russian
bond markets had envisioned a devaluation, not a complete default. A few influential Russian bankers managed
to capture the last rounds of dollar reserves from the Central Bank just before the collapse.
Main trends of the Russian economy, 1992-2001 9
The dollar inflow from the first IMF loan tranche left the country at extraordinary
speed, leaving the government with no choice but to announce a devaluation and a
moratorium on the debt - a de facto default. Under heavy pressure from bankers, the
government extended the moratorium to private bank debt. This was a final
confirmation of the soft legal constraints under which the financial system had been
operating.
The fall of the rouble sparked a liquidity and payment crisis, and many private banks
experienced runs on their funds (see Figure 9). Yet banks were able to refuse or delay
withdrawals, while shifting the last assets abroad or to affiliates.12
The Central Bank
suspended bank withdrawals and shifted private deposits to Sberbank. As a result,
Sberbank's share reached 90% of the rouble savings market (see Figure 10). The
insolvent banks were not declared bankrupt, nor were their owners ever called to
respond to the asset-stripping. After frustrating attempts to have their claims
enforced, foreign investors accepted settlements of a few cents per dollar.
The crisis in Russia did not have the same impact on real activity as in Mexico in
1995 and in Asia in 1997 (see Figure 11). A steep fall in production occurred
immediately after the August crisis, but a recovery had already started in December.
In later years, the lower rouble and higher oil prices ensured positive growth.
Financial crises usually cause severe recessions because of financial distress from the
resulting liquidity crunch. In Russia, the ability of firms and banks to renege on their
obligations to depositors or workers, the limited development of intermediation, and
the extent of cash payments and barter trade all help to explain why the crisis did
not feed through into the real economy. Even the liquidity crisis in the interbank
market affected payments only temporarily.
12
For a description of the asset-stripping by banks, see Schoors, 1999.
Figure 10. The Structure of Private Deposits (Source: CBR, Sberbank of Russia)
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
ThevolumeofDepostits(blnrub)
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
TheShareofPrivateDeposits
Total private deposits Private deposits in Sberbank The share of private deposits in Sberbank
Figure 10: The structure of private deposits
Source: CBR; Sberbank of Russia
10 Main trends of the Russian economy, 1992-2001
Three important elements have changed in Russia since the crisis. As the rouble
overvaluation has disappeared and domestic demand has revived, the trade-off
between cash-stripping and productive activity has shifted. As a result, stripping has
probably diminished and capital flight has slowed see Figure 3), certainly as a
proportion of export revenues. The devaluation caused a sharp drop in imports and a
recovery in domestic output, and a strong oil price boosted liquidity. Firms started
using cash payments instead of barter. As a result of political consolidation under
President Putin, state capture ended and fiscal authority has been restored. Tight
spending discipline has ensured a fiscal surplus, granting Russia a modest financial
buffer. The government has taken to paying its bills.
The slowdown of capital flight presumably reflects a reduced incentive to dump the
rouble since the devaluation; moreover, the new political leadership has been
assertive in forcing greater fiscal and payment discipline. Yet capital flight persists at
high levels, and the country's financial system has lost much credibility both abroad
and internally. Since the crisis, precious little has occurred to restart the domestic
intermediation circuit. Banking policy was not among the first policy initiatives
under the new Putin administration, although the banking lobby has visibly lost
influence. Some Russian financial institutions appear to be enjoying a return of
enterprise liquidity. Outside Sberbank, however, there is limited lending to the real
sector. Without further reform, the legal foundations of the banking system will
remain extremely vulnerable to the next crisis.
Figure 11. GDP Growth in a Year Following the Financial Crisis 1997-8 (Selected Countries) (Source: IMF IFS)
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
Indonesia Thailand Malaysia Czech Republic Phillipines Russia
GDPGrowth,%
Figure 11: GDP growth in a year following the financial crisis
1997-8 (selected countries)
Source: International Monetary Fund; Institute for Fiscal Studies
3. Rational collective non-compliance in Russia
We sketch here a model of rational collective non-compliance, which is formally
presented in the appendix (see page 24). Suppose that the ability of authorities to
enforce any obligation (be it legal rules, fiscal or contractual obligations) depends on
the number of economic agents which choose to comply with the obligation. The
more agents ignore the obligation, the harder it is to enforce it, and thus the lower is
the risk of punishment. Naturally, this leads to multiple equilibria.
The main conclusion of this simple model with a 'compliance externality' is that the
degree of compliance depends on the beliefs held by the population about other
agents' behaviour as well as on the credibility of enforcement authorities. If
individuals hold pessimistic beliefs about either, they will all choose to ignore rules
and financial obligations, however low is their individual cost of compliance. The
result is a lack of contractual reliability and the inability of the authorities to enforce
any legal and fiscal obligation.
If government credibility or the legal punishment are high, or the compliance cost is
low, other things being equal compliance will be higher. But note that a
deterioration in any of the parameters has a further effect, as it reduces compliance
indirectly through a reduced probability of punishment.
State capture, of course, reduces the credibility of authorities, as they are expected to
bend rules themselves to accommodate special interests. This may reinforce cynical
expectations of the behaviour of other agents. Coupled with high average
adjustment costs, this creates an expectation of a critical mass of non-compliance,
which will overwhelm the enforcement ability of policy-makers and justify non-
compliance.
The logic of the model can be applied to many aspects of transition policy. If tight
credit policy results in massive non-payment, monetary authorities come under
pressure for financial relief; in the face of massive tax evasion, fiscal authorities are
forced to tolerate arrears, thus validating non-payment. Similarly, regulatory and
legal reform cannot be enforced and diffuse criminality cannot be policed.13
We will describe next how the model may explain massive non-compliance in Russia
with financial and fiscal obligations, as well as new laws or prudential rules in the
banking sector.
13
This effect, termed by Janet Mitchell (1998) the 'too-many-to-fail effect', has been modelled by Perotti (1998) in
the context of monetary stabilization, by Roland and Verdier (1994) for privatization, and by Mitchell (1993) for
bankruptcy reform.
12 Rational collective non-compliance in Russia
In the conclusion, we discuss how this failure to enforce compliance may be a
possible determinant for the great economic divide that has opened between the
reforming Central European economies and the FSU states.
3.1 Stabilization policy
To start applying our model of non-compliance to Russia, we describe the collapse of
the early attempts at stabilization policy in 1992. Consider the choice of an
enterprise facing a tough restructuring decision in the face of tight credit. In
deciding whether to adjust, each manager would compare the adjustment costs
against the chance of a general bailout. As a critical mass of insolvent firms creates
insurmountable political pressure for relief, the probability of a bailout depends
critically on the expected aggregate response (Perotti, 1998).
The individual decision depends on the perceived decision of others, as well as on
government credibility and adjustment costs; in Russia, these factors were
considerably worse than in Central Europe. In 1992 the firm adjustment response to
tight monetary policy was insufficient, and most firms did not pay their bills. Firms
apparently decided that most other firms would find it impossible or unattractive to
adjust, and as a result the risk of strict enforcement was minimal. In the end, the
Central Bank was indeed forced to monetize the arrears, creating expectation of
further bailouts and undermining the credibility of the stabilization programme for
years.
In general, any systemic policy shift faces strategic complementarity in individual
adjustment responses. Russian firms' expectations about the behaviour of other units
(in part a function of historical experience14
) reflected a perfectly rational lack of
confidence in the capacity to maintain a tight credit policy in the face of massive
defaults.
3.2 The cash-stripping economy
Before applying our model to Russian institutions, we need to describe the role of
cash. Converting enterprise assets into cash allows enterprise managers to
appropriate and easily transfer value. As a result, firms avoided cash payment and
often failed to pay altogether. Massive non-payment minimized the risk of
prosecution. Settlements of payment obligations became a matter of bargaining. In
Russia, a de facto seniority of claims emerged with little connection to contractual
priority.
Creditors with the highest priority were those who could impose concrete sanctions.
Under Yeltsin's weak leadership, criminals had more power than authorities, as did
local government relative to federal authorities. Next in seniority came those with
the power derived from reciprocal dependence, such as suppliers or political partners.
14
Passive resistance was already developed under central planning, when unrealistic diktats could be resisted by
collective sluggishness.
Rational collective non-compliance in Russia 13
Foreign investors belonged to this category only if they were critical for technology
transfers or future funding. The lowest priority creditors were dispersed or socially
disorganized agents, such as workers, depositors and minority shareholders. Unlike,
say, Latin America, it was possible for both government and enterprises to ignore
payments to workers, savers and pensioners at the time of tight money. In no other
industrialized country have workers suffered such non-payment with such
resignation (Earle, 1998).15
3.3 Enterprises
In a grand political bargain to buy out opposition to privatization, ownership of
most enterprises became controlled by managers (Shleifer and Treisman, 1999).
Perhaps there was no other way to entrench private property in Russia. Yet it appears
that transferring control to managers seriously weakened the ability of the state to
control the reform process.16
Under poor legal enforcement, control rights are very
valuable (Modigliani and Perotti, 1998; Bebchuk, 1999). Control generates access to
cash-appropriating activities. Privatization thus granted insiders great discretion to
capture resources from the state and investors, without exposing them to binding
'rules of conduct'17
(Filatotchev, Bleaney and Wright, 1999).
The overwhelming empirical evidence suggests that privatization failed to improve
performance (Earle and Estrin, 1998). The incentive for managers to restructure,
retain cash flow and reinvest it internally did not emerge in Russia.
Why did partial ownership fail to motivate management? Restructuring offered low
returns and high risk, because of rouble overvaluation, increasing competition and
the difficulty of switching to Western markets. Corporate profits were exposed to
taxation and external predation by bureaucrats, criminals and racketeers, and even
political reversals by the communists in the Duma. In this environment, ownermanagers
protected their own interests by stripping assets and transforming them
into cash (cash-stripping). Cash is anonymous, easy to transfer and difficult to
track.18
Stripping assets destroyed long-term value, but cash was more appropriable
than the gains managers could expect as value-optimizing shareholders. The
progressive overvaluation of the rouble also discouraged productive activities and
encouraged capital flight.
Insider privatization produced poor results in other countries such as in the Czech
Republic. The Russian case suggests an even greater loss of regulatory control to
special interests.
15
We argue later that the capacity to run up wage arrears is crucial to understanding how Russia could maintain
such a tight monetary policy after the devaluation.16
Many structural reforms, such as bank legislation, the sale of
the most valuable resource companies, the public debt market and the provision of currency hedges, were
implemented in a compromise with powerful interests.
17
This outcome compares unfavourably with the Chinese experience of central control over major resources
while allowing liberalization on new ventures (Roland, 2001).
18
This problem was made more acute by a legal framework in which someone who acquires illegally obtained
14 Rational collective non-compliance in Russia
A spectacular example of policy capture was the debt-for-shares deal, negotiated on
the eve of the 1996 presidential elections. Via a dubious secured loan, control of the
best natural resources companies was captured at a minimal price by a few
influential banks, creating a number of financial industrial groups (FIGs). Cashgenerating
companies in these groups were actively milked by controlling
shareholders, leading to major conflicts with investors and, more recently, with the
Russian government.19
3.4 Taxation
Tax liabilities in Russia enjoyed a priority status contingent on the perceived political
strength of the government.20
A simple elaboration of the basic model illustrates this point. Consider a Russian
firm facing a tax obligation. The risk of punishment for non-payment diminishes as
more firms fall into arrears and as tax authorities face a greater task of collection.21
At
the same time, the incentive to delay payment increases with the opportunity cost of
cash, measured by the expected devaluation or the GKO yield. Fiscal weakness thus
further reinforces the benefits of tax resistance: the lower the tax revenues, the
stronger is the need to issue bonds and the higher is the GKO yield. Thus the costs
of tax arrears fall and their rewards rise in the perceived number of firms in arrears.
Indeed, tax revenues remained weak throughout the reform period, and tended to
respond to signs of weakness of the federal government. The last days of the
Chernomyrdin administration in 1997 were marked by a massive expansion in tax
surrogates, matched by rising GKO rates (see Figure 12). Even as the government of
Kirilenko immediately thereafter tightened rules and closed the loopholes of tax
offsets, tax payments did not improve significantly, reflecting the perceived
impotence of the government (Ivanova and Wyplosz, 1999). In part as a result, the
government persistently failed to comply with its own payment obligations.22
The incentives for tax evasion have changed markedly since the crisis. The
disappearance of the rouble overvaluation and the GKO market reduced the return
to tax arrears. Strong political leadership restored a measure of enforcement
credibility under the Putin administration, affecting compliance directly and
indirectly via a shift in the perceived degree of overall compliance. Even the
government has given a positive example by significantly improving its payment
record, a step that may shift the focal point of expectations on payment discipline.
19
Large industrial-financial groups, common in underdeveloped financial systems, certainly owe their influence
to political support, yet may provide governance and an internal capital market to alleviate credit constraints.
Empirical research on Russian FIGs (Perotti and Gelfer, 2001) has shown that while group firms may have been
better managed, cash flow from cash-rich group firms was reallocated on a massive scale and may have been
shifted outside the group.
20
Tax obligations to local government may have been more binding, since local support allowed firms to resist
federal taxes.
21
Although there are penalties for late tax payment, settlement in Russia is always a matter of bargaining.
22
Political changes weakening the centre can thus have a disproportionate effect on tax compliance if they are
seen as leading to a weaker bargaining position by the federal government.
Rational collective non-compliance in Russia 15
3.5 Barter
Barter has a long tradition in Russia, and its causes are complex; we will not attempt
a complete assessment here.23
Historically, barter appears mainly during wars or
hyperinflation. In Russia, the opportunity cost of cash payments was high because of
the high appropriability of cash and its higher return for managers. Evidence that
cash-stripping took precedence over productive activity is that barter rose with real
interest rates and with rouble overvaluation (see Figure 7).24
The ability to ignore payments to suppliers depends on the counterparts'
comparative importance. Russian firms needed to maintain good relations with
suppliers to secure inputs; yet such was the value of cash that they switched en
masse to barter, a very inefficient form of settlement, leading to an unprecedented
degree of demonetization.
A related view is that barter is a form of collateralized trade credit, which emerges
when there is no credible liquidation threat. Marin and Schnitzer (1999, 2000) argue
that barter supported trade between firms with tightly integrated production. Thanks
to mutual bargaining power, trading via barter provides a form of collateral that
limits the buyer's ability to resist payment. Barter then offers the sole transacting
solution when managers have incentives to strip cash.
The steady fall in barter since the crisis reflects the reduced opportunity cost of cash
(owing to the devaluation and the disappearance of the GKO market) and the
enhanced discipline under Putin. Furthermore, the devaluation restored incentives
for productive activities, and thus induced firms to pay cash to ensure a timely
delivery of inputs.
23
For a review, see Commander and Mumssen, 1998. A special issue on barter and arrears was published in
Economic Systems (2000), with contributions from Schaffer, Gavrilenkov, Poser, Marin and Ickes.
24
Ivanova and Wyplosz (1999) find that both higher monetary growth and higher interest rates are correlated
with higher barter.
Figure 13. Foreign Debt Exposure and GKO holdings of Russian Banks (Source: CBR)
0
5
10
15
20
25
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Foreign debt exposure of Russian banks Volume of GKO in bank assets
Figure 12: Foreign debt exposure and CKO holdings of Russian banks
Source: Centre for Development Research
16 Rational collective non-compliance in Russia
3.6 Banks and Banking Supervision
Many observers recognized that prior to the crisis, banking supervision at the CBR
was largely perfunctory,25
leaving much leeway to Russian banks to claim compliance
with prudential regulations and capital requirements (Laeven, 2000). Connected
lending (loans to insiders and friends) were often outright transfers; cash would be
lent to an empty-box firm which would pass it on and vanish, leaving no trace. Cash
also left the banks via purchases at face value of worthless securities from obscure
companies, which were often located abroad.
State capture appears to be the main explanation for such lax controls. Bankers
enjoyed tremendous political clout, either via lobbying or by virtue of their control
over the media.
One example of their political power is reflected in the incredible story of Russian
bankruptcy law, a classic example of soft legal constraints. The first general
bankruptcy law in 1990 was extremely pro-debtor and thus toothless. Even after later
amendments, removing insiders from control after default turned out to be
impossible. Furthermore, as a result of intense lobbying, the new legislation
explicitly stated that it would not be applicable to banks. Yet no law on bank
bankruptcy was passed until the crisis. The most indebted and vulnerable sector in
the Russian economy could thrive without any threat of exit. De jure, Russian banks
could not go bankrupt.26
As the crisis approached, banks maximized their leverage and dollar exposure; cash
was sent abroad while contingent liabilities piled up. The collapse of Tokobank and
SBS-Agro, two generally well-regarded private banks, before the crisis occurred
revealed the extreme precariousness of the system.
Direct evidence of the insolvent status of the banking system comes from a Western
bank audit performed in the autumn of 1998 in 18 large Russian banks. Poor
lending, often in favour of connected parties, accounted for over one-third of capital
losses. The fall of the rouble caused another 25% of losses, largely through huge
forward positions. In comparison, losses due to the GKO default accounted for just
13% of total losses.27
Yet balance sheet data of Russian banks in 1997 indicated much larger holdings of
GKO debt and a much lower net dollar exposure (Figure 12). In early 1998, Russian
banks were reporting capitalization rates above 10%, a modern equivalent of the
25
The Central Bank mostly sought control by requiring very high obligatory reserves without remuneration.
Schoors (2001) shows that Russian banks, notwithstanding this confiscatory policy, preferred to hold liquidity
and gamble rather than to lend.
26
Even the rights of the CBR to withdraw a bank's licence were unclear, and some attempts were thrown out in
court. Tighter legislation was passed in 1999 under IMF pressure, yet few significant banks have been closed
since.
27
The GKOs were the only rouble assets yielding a cash return, so the default was directly responsible for the
initial liquidity crisis in payments, in addition to the interbank confidence crisis. I am grateful to a referee for
this observation.
Rational collective non-compliance in Russia 17
façades in front of empty houses in a Potemkin village. The banks' exposure to the
dollar was in reality higher and more leveraged than reported, owing to massive sales
of forward dollar hedges to foreigners. Figure 13 illustrates the vast dollar exposure
that the largest Russian banks had built by 1998, relative to their own (largely
imaginary) capital. Such contingent liabilities allowed them to capture the large
interest rate differential without committing any capital to back up the promised
claims. The Central Bank provided no prudential oversight: when pressed, banks
claimed to have 'cross-hedged' their exposure with (grossly undercapitalized) small
regional banks. The difference between net and gross exposure was blurred.
Paradoxically, the crisis did not produce improvements in prudential enforcement.
Bank closures fell, just as bank insolvency became obvious (Figure 14). The CBR
officers who tried to force bank closures were countermanded and had to resign.
Failed bankers were allowed to escape repayment with no legal consequences, and
had enough time to transfer the last assets elsewhere. Incredibly, some bankrupt
banks whose licences had been withdrawn managed to have them returned on legal
technicalities.
The sole steps taken after the crisis were to transfer deposits in failed private banks to
frozen accounts in Sberbank, which have since been withdrawn at considerable
loss.28
The Russian banking system has lost much credibility, so restarting domestic
intermediation is essential, given the scarcity of external funds available to Russia in
the foreseeable future. The Putin administration has managed to reverse state
capture, restoring administrative controls and tightening enforcement of official
rules - indispensable steps to remove the most perverse incentives. Yet only modest
regulatory changes have taken place in the banking sector. Since the crisis,
Figure 14. Russian Banks with the Largest Forward Positions (Source: Profile, autumn 1997)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
InkombankNationalReserve
M
DM
-Bank
Unibest
Tokobank
ONEKSIM
-bank
Sberbank
SBS-Agro
AvtobankGazprombank
M
enatepVneshtorgbankM
ezhkombankRossiskiKredit
M
etkombank
VolumeofForwardContracts(blnrub)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
RatioofForwardContractstoBankAssets
Volume of forward contracts Share of forward contracts in bank assets
Figure 13: Russian banks with the largest forward positions
Source: Profile, autumn 1997
28
The government also created a bank restructuring agency, ARKO. Yet ARKO made no effort to counter assetstripping;
all its refinancing deals were made with the approval of existing management.
18 Rational collective non-compliance in Russia
individual depositors moved away from private banks, shifting mostly to cash.
Although Sberbank has always dominated the retail deposit market, after the crisis it
gained a near monopoly position thanks to its deposit guarantee. It is now venturing
into commercial lending, often supporting politically favoured projects. This may
develop into a financial time bomb, especially since its dominant position grants it
formidable bargaining power. Incentives to conduct proper banking business remain
undermined by an excessive number of banks, many of which are insolvent, and
poor creditor rights protection. There has been some recovery of lending, reflecting
high corporate liquidity deposited in banks since the devaluation. Still, the
vulnerability of the sector to external shocks remains extreme: prudential rules are
easily circumvented, and capital flight is still massive. Only radical changes in the
structure of bankers' incentives offer some chance of stability.
Our proposal seeks regulatory solutions that are simple enough to be easily
implemented and monitored, and robust with respect to the nature of the
opportunistic behaviour we have described.29
29
Glaeser and Shleifer (2001) show that when regulatory enforcement is difficult, quantity restrictions, while less
efficient, may be preferred to other restrictions that are easier to circumvent.
Figure 15. Number of Bank Licenses Withdrawn under Prudential Supervision (Source: CBR)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
1996
Q1
1997
Q1
1998
Q1
1999
Q1
2000
Q1
NumberofLicenses
Figure 14: Number of bank licenses withdrawn under
prudential supervision
Source: CBR
4. What is to be done? (Chto delat’?)
We offer a reform strategy based on our reading of the Russian context and the
mistakes made in the past. It is crucial to choose measures that create incentives for
prudent banking without relying too much on rules that can be easily circumvented
or resisted. The idea is to shift from conventional supervision in a context of
universal banking to a policy of managing the degree of competition and
segmentation in a two-tier banking sector.
The choice Russia made early on (under heavy lobbying by bankers) for the
'universal bank' format granted maximum discretion in investment choices and
contributed to the failure of prudential supervision. The large number of licensed
banks overwhelmed the CBR's supervisory capacity, thus reducing compliance; it also
spread financial skills thinly across banks and reduced lending margins. In such a
situation, speculation was more attractive than proper bank lending. Both mistakes
need to be redressed.
First, the universal bank charter should be abolished and bank activities should be
segmented. A layer of safe banking institutions, dedicated to payment services and
safekeeping for retail depositors, should be established to create a solid foundation
for the financial system. Paradoxically, there are too few real retail banks in Russia,
in part because of Sberbank's monopoly on deposit insurance. This privilege should
be progressively diluted by the entry of new saving banks enjoying a (partial) deposit
guarantee that matches Sberbank's. The retail network of Sberbank, accounting for
95% of all retail branches in the country, should be also partially sold out to other
banks.
To prevent speculation or outright cash-stripping, savings banks will be obliged to
invest an amount equal to their retail and bank deposits in safe assets, such as
Central Bank and government bonds, domestic bonds with international ratings and
perhaps some safe foreign assets. Riskier lending would be allowed only up to the
level of paid-in and subordinated capital. Their assets could not be swapped or
pledged as collateral in order to avoid asset-stripping (in the extreme case, assets may
be deposited with the CBR).
Safe banks may be progressively authorized to lend a rising fraction of their funds, so
as not to exceed a low fraction of their assets. Such 'quantity restrictions' would
eliminate the risk of speculative or opportunistic transactions. The supervision task
of the CBR would be greatly simplified: it is easier to monitor a bank's compliance
with asset restrictions than with capitalization requirements.
20 What is to be done? (Chto delat’?)
The possible composition of safe asset portfolios is an issue. Although the Russian
government is currently running a surplus, this may be highly cyclical as it reflects
high oil prices. Public spending may also surge before the next elections. It is
therefore important that a broad-based, less speculative basis be created for a
medium-term government debt market. There is also evidence that the better Russian
firms are trying to improve investor relations and may soon issue bonds.
Narrow banks can be quite profitable. A study in the US shows that payment, deposit
and service fees account for over 40% of total bank profits (Radecki, 1999). A
profitability study of East European banks (Fries et al., 1998) showed that the major
determinant of profitability was a broad retail base, which allowed the banks to
invest cheap deposit funds in higher-yielding government paper.
The second layer of banks, the commercial banks, should not have restrictions on
their assets and should not enjoy deposit insurance. Commercial banks will need to
obtain new licences from the CBR, conditional on a significant injection of new
capital. Capital requirements should be fairly high so as to be initially very restrictive
to entry.
The goal of a temporarily concentrated commercial banking sector is to restore
profitability in proper banking operations. Research suggests that a more
concentrated commercial banking sector may be safer precisely because a low degree
of competition maintains margins in less risky lending.30
This creates powerful
incentives for banks to remain solvent in order to maintain valuable operating
licences.31
In the medium term, when the supervisory capacity of the Central Bank and other
institutional mechanisms will be stronger, asset restriction in the safe layer of banks
can be gradually relaxed. The flow of funds from safe to commercial banks may be
gradually expanded; monitoring such interbank flows could become a major channel
of CBR supervision.
This market structure coincides with the early experience of credit market
development in the West. Most countries started with an extremely restrictive bank
licensing policy; even when entry was allowed, the banking system was kept highly
segmented, especially among retail and investment banking and insurance.
Deregulation took place progressively, at the speed at which indirect regulatory and
market mechanisms became effective. These included the establishment of reliable
secondary markets, credible professional services such as auditing and rating
agencies, and effective enforcement mechanisms such as bankruptcy.
30
Caminal-Vives (1996); Suarez (1994).
31
A related policy, well established in Western Europe, assigns control of failed banks to solvent institutions on
concessionary terms. This may reinforce the incentive to remain solvent and create support among other banks
for tough enforcement of solvency requirements (Perotti-Suarez, 2002).
What is to be done? (Chto delat’?) 21
Russia's leap into universal banking was not the result of a careful policy, but of
bending to strong special interests. The attempt to leapfrog the intermediate stages
of financial development ultimately backfired.
In essence, our argument is that Russia must evolve gradually to stages of greater
financial development, following a natural sequence. Restrictions on competition
serve prudential purposes when the institutional capacity for enforcement is limited,
since a valuable banking charter is the best incentive to promote a long-term strategy
of proper banking over short-term opportunistic speculation and theft.
Segmentation imposes constraints that are crude but are very simple to verify, and
can thus be more easily enforced.
Recent experience of policy implementation in Russia does call for caution. Reforms
were designed to co-opt entrenched interests which may otherwise have blocked
their implementation - an approach that has too often backfired. Clearly, creating a
concentrated market can help overcome resistance to banking reform by those
Russian bankers who will be licensed. Experience suggests that it would be unwise to
create banks so powerful that they capture supervisory policy. Important safeguards
include separating the retail market and maintaining a strong authority to enforce
exit or changes in control for speculating banks.
5. Conclusions
This Paper has described the dynamics of the Russian crisis as the outcome of the
failure to move from central planning to a system of decentralized obligations. We
argued that this failure was endogenous to high adjustment costs for many agents
and negative expectations of compliance by other agents, made worse by state
capture and sustained rouble overvaluation. Russian enterprises and banks effectively
moved from a Soviet-period soft budget constraint to soft legal constraints. (Figure
15 confirms the relative standing of Russia and other FSU countries in terms of
institutional capacity for legal enforcement.) Asset-stripping at the top was matched
by systemic non-payment and illegality, and by passive resistance on a massive scale
to comply with the necessary adjustment.
How can we explain the difference with other transition countries in Central Europe
where stabilization succeeded? Clearly, state capture mattered. While success for
Central European businessmen reflected their capacity to succeed in open
competition, in Russia it resulted from the capture of state resources or protected
rents (Black, Kraakman and Tarassova, 2000; Johnson, Macmillan and Woodruff,
1998).32
But why was the new Russian state so easily captured? Was Yeltsin's rule inept, or
seen as not fully legitimate? Perhaps part of the answer is that the ability to enforce
rules is endogenous; only when enough citizens choose to obey the law does it
Figure 16. Overall Average Institutional Quality Index (Source: )
-30.0
-25.0
-20.0
-15.0
-10.0
-5.0
0.0
Hungary
Slovenia
Poland
CzechRepublic
Estonia
SlovakRepublic
Latvia
Lithuania
Mongolia
Croatia
Bulgaria
Romania
Moldova
China
Macedonia
VietNam
Cambodia
KyrgyzRepublic
Armenia
Kazakhstan
RussianFederation
Ukraine
Georgia
Albania
Belarus
Azerbaijan
Bosnia&Herzeg.
Uzbekistan
Turkmenistan
LaoPeople'sDem.
Tajikistan
Figure 15: Overall average institutional quality index
Source: Kaufmann, D.; Hellman, J.; G. Jones; and M. Schankerman, 2000
32
In fact, passive resistance was a pattern already developed under central planning, when unrealistic diktats
from the centre could be often resisted by collective sluggishness.
Conclusions 23
become possible to enforce it on the few who do not comply. In that sense a rapid
reform process was not credible in Russia, because adjustment costs and diffuse
expectations of the attitude of other agents were more unfavourable than in Central
Europe. The greater distance from Western markets and the poorer infrastructure of
the FSU countries implied higher costs to access new markets, but also made quick
adjustment less credible and thus undermined the implementation of rapid reforms.
At the same time, the extent of state capture in the Yeltsin years diminished the
credibility of the authorities, since it signalled to everyone the inability of a corrupt
political system to commit to the enforcement of the rule of law; this in turn
increased the expectation of massive non-compliance.
Finally, Russia missed out on a major factor which reinforced support for reforms in
Central Europe: namely the realization that they were necessary steps to join the
European Union. Unfortunately, this option was not open to Russia for political and
military reasons (Roland and Verdier, 2000).
While much can be learned from the Russian crisis, an important lesson is that no
special approach is required to understand it; in other words, the Russian crisis is
extraordinary because of its size, not because of its nature. Russia is indeed a special
country because of its size, complexity and history; and yet Russia is not unique, nor
do its citizens have a different system of economic aspirations. Quite simply, the
Russian crisis is the systemic consequence of a structure of perverse individual
incentives built on an extremely weak legal environment. Although lack of
experience and external factors (the oil price drop, the Asian crisis) all played a role,
the collapse was the result of poor incentives, arising from (and contributing to) the
failure to establish financial discipline. Russia is different in one respect: because of
its political and military importance, it enjoyed the support of international
institutions even though its government was leading an unsustainable policy which
encouraged capital flight and theft on an unique scale.
In such a context, the focus of Western assistance on monetary stabilization, funded
by foreign aid and loans, was misplaced, as it just fed the capital outflow without
correcting the roots of the problem. A more appropriate policy would have pressed
for stricter governance in state and private institutions.33
To be fair, the IMF and the World Bank came under intense political pressure to
support Russia at any cost and were forced to gamble, in the hope that the rouble
rate could be defended until a stable economic foundation was built. Yet the massive
support given to support the rouble actually reinforced the short-term incentives to
expropriate and export capital.
This Paper offers a minimalist strategy based on a realistic reading of the Russian
context and on learning from past mistakes. The idea is to shift from conventional
33
A restrictive mandate for the IMF, which would reduce its relatively recent role in promoting microeconomic
reforms and limit it to providing short-term liquidity to countries satisfying certain criteria, would severely limit
the number of countries that could qualify for IMF support.
24 Conclusions
supervision in a context of universal banking to a policy of managing the degree of
competition and segmentation in a two-tier banking sector.
Although bank segmentation is out of fashion in the West, we argue that it fits the
stage of financial development in which Russia currently finds itself. The historical
experience of the early stage of financial development in the West was also
characterized by tight restrictions, limited entry and market segmentation (Perotti
and Suarez, 2002). Such constraints are needed in any society with a weak
institutional framework to control opportunistic behaviour, which may be harder to
control in a more liberal, rule-based regulatory policy. Financial liberalization can
progress only as fast as the ability of domestic institutions to control opportunistic
behaviour in the financial sector, and the ability of authorities to ensure fiscal
discipline.
Appendix: A formal model of rational collective non-
compliance
Consider an agent who must decide whether to comply with a contractual, fiscal or
legal obligation, which implies some cost c. Compliance costs differ among agents
and are distributed uniformly on [0, 2C]. The average cost C reflects either the extent
of the obligation (i.e. the financial liability) or the adjustment/opportunity cost of
compliance. There is a legal penalty P for non-compliance, but enforcement is not
certain.
There are two components to enforcement uncertainty. The first is a measure of the
credibility of the legal system, which we denote as K. This reflects the political
capacity or determination to enforce obligations, and is affected by vulnerability to
corruption. The second reflects the systemic nature of adjustment in a transitional
context. Specifically, we assume that the ability to enforce a penalty, and especially
the probability of enforcement (denoted as q), increases with the number of agents
choosing to comply. This may reflect a limited capacity and experience in
enforcement of decentralized arrangements after years of central planning.
Denote the fraction of agents not complying as B. We assume that the expected
enforcement probability q equals the credibility level K, divided by the expected
percentage of agents not complying: q = K/E(B). In equilibrium, any agent complies
if its adjustment cost c is less than c* = qP, the adjustment cost for the individual
who is just indifferent.
The individual decision thus depends on credibility K, but also on the expected
behaviour of other individuals; the fewer are expected to comply (i.e. the higher is
B), the less likely is punishment. This externality leads to multiple equilibria.
In particular, full compliance is an equilibrium only if people expect all others to
comply, and 2C < KP (i.e. the maximum adjustment cost is less than the expected
punishment under complete compliance).
The more relevant case is KP > 2C;34
in this case, at least some agents have a
sufficiently high cost not to comply. Expected compliance B is given by solving
B= prob (c<c*) = 1- c*/2C= [2C-KP/B]/C.
The resulting quadratic equation35
has two solutions, 0 < B1 < 1 and B2 > 1, for the
34
While there are equilibria in mixed strategies, their implications are similar.
35
The quadratic form results from the assumed linear cumulative function for c.
26 Appendix
equilibrium expectation on compliance. The first root describes an interior solution,
with a positive fraction of the population complying. In this case, the degree of
compliance depends on the institutional parameters and the average cost of
adjustment.
If government credibility or the legal punishment are high, other things being equal,
compliance will be higher. If the average adjustment cost C is high, average
adjustment is lower. But note that a deterioration in any of the parameters also has a
further effect, as it reduces compliance indirectly through a reduced probability of
punishment.
The second solution B2 is a self-fulfilling worse equilibrium, in which all individuals
ignore their obligations because they expect everyone else to do the same.
References
Bebchuk, L. (1999), 'A Rent-Protection Theory of Corporate Ownership and Control',
NBER Working Paper No. 7203, Cambridge, MA.
Black, B., R. Kraakman and A. Tarassova (2000), Russian Privatization and Corporate
Governance: What Went Wrong?, Stanford Law Review 52 pp. 1731-1808.
Carlin, W., S. Fries, M. Schaffer and P. Seabright (2000), 'Barter and non-monetary
transactions in transition economies: Evidence from a cross-country survey', EBRD
Working Paper 50, London.
Commander, S. and C. Mummsen (1998), 'Understanding Barter in Russia', EBRD,
Working Paper 37, London.
Corsetti, G., P. Pesenti and N. Roubini (1998), 'What Caused the Asian Currency and
Financial Crisis?', mimeo, Yale University.
Corsetti, G., P. Pesenti and N. Roubini (1999), 'Paper Tigers? A Model of the Asian
Crisis', European Economic Review 43, 7.
Earle, J. and S. Estrin (1998), 'Privatization, Competition, and Budget Constraints:
Disciplining Enterprises in Russia', LBS mimeo, London.
Fischer, S. and R. Sahay (2000), 'The Transition Economies After 10 Years', IMF
Working Paper 00/30, Washington DC.
Fries, S., D. Neven, C. Ng and P. Seabright (1998), 'The Performance of the Banking
System in Transition', EBRD Working Paper, London.
Gaddy, C. and B. Ickes (1998), 'Russia's virtual economy', Foreign Affairs 77,
September-October.
Gavrilenkov, E. (2000), 'The way out of the non-cash economy: Establishing market
culture', Economic Systems 24, 1, pp. 62-6.
Gelfer S, K. Pistor and M. Raiser (2000), 'Law and Finance in Transition Economies',
EBRD Working Paper No. 48, London.
Gelfer, S. and E. Perotti (2001), 'Red Barons or Robber Barons? Investment Financing
in Russian FIGs', European Economic Review 45, 9.
28 References
Ickes, B.W. (2000), 'A note on barter', Economic Systems 24, 1, pp. 83-6.
Glaeser, E. and A. Shleifer (2001), 'A Case for Quantity Regulation', Harvard Institute
of Economic Research Paper No. 1909, January.
Hellman, J., G. Jones and D. Kaufmann (2000), 'Seize the State, Seize the Day: State
Capture, Corruption and Influence in Transition', World Bank Policy Research
Working Paper No. 2444, September.
Hellmann, T., K. Murdock and J. Stiglitz (1998), 'Liberalization, Moral Hazard in
Banking and Prudential Regulation: Are Capital Requirements Enough?', Stanford
GSB Working Paper No. 1466R.
Ivanova, N. and C. Wyplosz (1999), 'Arrears: the Tide that is Drowning Russia',
RECEP mimeo, Moscow.
Ivanova, N. and C. Wyplosz (2001), 'Who Lost Russia?', Working Paper, Graduate
Institute of International Studies, Université de Genève.
Johnson, S., J. McMillan and C. Woodruff (1999), 'Contract enforcement in
transition', EBRD Working Paper 45, London.
Kaufmann, D., Hellman, J., G. Jones, and M. Schankerman, 2000 ‘Measuring
Governance, Corruption, and State Capture: How Firms and Bureaucrats Shape the
Business Environment in Transit’, World Bank Working Paper #2312.
Krugman, P. (1998), 'What Happened to Asia?',
http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/DISINTER.html
Laeven, L. (2001), 'Insider Lending and Bank Ownership: The Case of Russia', Journal
of Comparative Economics 29, 2, pp. 207-29.
Lipton, D. and J. Sachs (1992), 'Prospects for Russia's Economic Reforms', Brookings
Papers 2, pp. 213-83.
Loungani, P. and P. Mauro (2000), 'Capital Flight in Russia', IMF Discussion Paper
00/6, Washington DC.
Marin, D. (2000), 'Monetary policy does not work in Russia's barter economy.
German banking as a solution?', Economic Systems 24, 1, pp. 87-90.
Marin, D. and M, Schnitzer (1999), 'Disorganization and Financial Collapse', CEPR
Discussion Paper No. 2245, London.
Marin, D. and M. Schnitzer (2000), Contracts in Trade and Transition: The Fall and
Rise of Barter, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
References 29
Matutes, C. and X. Vives (1996), 'Competition for Deposits, Fragility, and Insurance',
Journal of Financial Intermediation, Vol. 5, pp. 184-216.
Mitchell, J. (1998), 'Strategic Creditor Passivity, Regulation and Bank Bailouts', CEPR
Discussion Paper No. 1780, London.
Modigliani, F. and E. Perotti (2000), 'Security Markets versus Bank Finance: Legal
Enforcement and Investor Protection', International Review of Finance.
OECD, Economic Survey, Russian Federation, Paris, OECD, March 2000, February
2002.
Poser, J. A. (2000), 'Remonetising post-Soviet economies', Economic Systems 24, 1,
pp. 91-8.
Perotti, E. and J. Sgard (2000), 'The Russian Meltdown', mimeo, University of
Amsterdam.
Perotti, E. (1998), 'A medium term strategy for bank restructuring in Russia', RECEP
policy memo.
Perotti, E. and J. Suarez (2002), 'Last Bank Standing; What Do I Gain if You Fail',
European Economic Review, forthcoming.
Perotti, E. (1998), 'Inertial Credit and Opportunistic Arrears in Transition', European
Economic Review, Vol. 42, pp. 1703-25.
Pistor, K. (2000), 'Patterns of legal change: shareholder and creditor rights in
transition economies', EBRD Working Paper 49, London.
Popov, V. (2000), 'The Currency Crisis in Russia in a Wider Context', mimeo,
Institute of European and Russian Studies (EURUS), Carleton University, Ottawa.
Radecki, L. (1999), 'Banks' Payment Driven Revenues', Economic Policy Review, Vol.
5, No. 2, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Roland, G. and T. Verdier (1994), 'Privatization in Eastern Europe: irreversibility and
critical mass effects', Journal of Public Economics, pp. 161-83.
Roland, G. (2001), 'The Political Economy of Transition', Journal of Economic
Perspectives.
Roland, G. and T. Verdier (2000), 'Law Enforcement and Transition', mimeo, UC
Berkeley.
Schaffer, M. (2000), 'Should we be worried about the use of trade credit and nonmonetary
transactions in transition economies?', Economic Systems 24, 1, pp. 55-61.
30 References
Schoors, K. (1999), 'The Mired Restructuring of Russia's Banking System', Russian
Economic Trends 4, pp. 35-45.
Schoors, K. (2001), 'The Credit Squeeze during Russia's Early Transition', Economics
of Transition 9, 1, pp. 205-28.
Shleifer, A. and D. Treisman (1999), Without a Map: Political Tactics and Economic
Reform in Russia, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Suarez, J. (1994), 'Closure Rules, Market Power, and Risk Taking in a Dynamic Model
of Bank Behavior', LSE/Financial Markets Group Discussion Paper No. 196, London.
Tang, H., E. Zoli and I. Klytchnikova (2000), Resolving Banking Crises in Transition
Countries, World Bank, Washington, DC.
Westin, P. (2000), 'Export revenues: repatriation or expropriation', Russian Economic
Trends, February, pp. 3-10.
Wyplosz, C. (1999), 'Ten Years of Transformation: Macroeconomic Lessons', Paper
presented at the World Bank ABCDE conference, Washington, DC.