Is the Russian Virtual Economy Coming to an End? Institutional Change in the Arkhangelsk Forest Sector

Olsson, M.-O. (2006). Is the Russian Virtual Economy Coming to an End? Institutional Change in the Arkhangelsk Forest Sector. IIASA Interim Report. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: IR-06-048

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Abstract

Since the spring of 1997, the Forestry Program at IIASA has been engaged in a study called "Institutions and the Emergence of Markets-Transition in the Russian Forest Sector". The IIASA research group has looked at problems related to the institutions governing the Russian forest sector. In its first phase (1998-2001) the study sought to identify institutional problems hampering the further development of the Russian forest sector. Case studies were performed in eight Russian regions. In its second phase (2000-2002), so-called policy exercise workshops were held in four of the eight case study regions. In these workshops the findings of the case studies were presented to the stakeholders in the respective regions and a discussion was initiated about future regional forest policies. In a third phase, starting in 2003, after the in-house research activity was over, the study has been continued outside the institute by a member of the previous IIASA team. A follow-up study of the behavior forest sector enterprises in one of the previous case study regions (Arkhangelsk Oblast) has been conducted with the purpose of assessing the recent development of the institutional set-up characterizing the so-called virtual economy. The present report presents the findings of this assessment.

The report should be possible to read independently of earlier published reports from IIASAs study of Russian forest institutions. All reports from the study published so far are listed in Appendix B.

On behalf of Professor Sten Nilsson, Deputy Director and Leader of IIASAs Forestry Program, I would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Mikhail Y. Varakin, Arkhangelsk State Technical University, Arkhangelsk. Without his dedicated work this report would not have been possible.

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