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Course Syllabus

Master 2020/2021

Informal Economy and Entrepreneurship in Contemporary Russia

Type: Elective course (Russian Studies)
Area of studies: Political Science
Delivered by: School of Sociology
Where: Faculty of Social Sciences
When: 2 year, 1, 2 module
Mode of studies: offline
Instructors: Alexander Chepurenko, Lili Di Puppo, Leonid Kosals, Vladimir A. Kozlov, Alena Ledeneva, Anna A. Zudina
Master’s programme: Российские исследования
Language: English
ECTS credits: 5
Contact hours: 44

Course Syllabus

Full Syllabus

Abstract

Literature usually defines informality as economic activity that bypasses enforcement costs and is excluded from the protection of laws and administrative rules. How are formal and informal activities combined and what drives switching from one into another, is of interest for the course. Studies on historic legacies are invited in this sub-theme. The historic evolution of informal economic activities caused by goods and services scarcity and distrust in State to the contemporary practices of informal activity is the second point of the course. Many of the formal regulations in Russia were originally institutional transplants from the West. They often did not work as expected or even contributed to market failure. The reasons of it are the third core point of the course. Finally, the changing formality-informality nexus is not isolated from the changes in the wider socioeconomic and political context. The interplay of economic informality and the general socioeconomic and political order is the final point of the course.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • The goals of the module are as follows: - knowing of basic terms and approaches to investigate the informal economy and informality; - knowing of instruments and methods used in social research to explore informal relations and its social consequences; - developing of basic analytical and instrumental competences in researching informality
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • Students to know main definitions and theoretical approaches to informal economy and informality
  • Students to know basic definitions and main approaches in the literature to informal economy
  • Students to know the reasons of embedded corruption and the role of the State and its politics in imperfect transitional environments
  • Students to know the role of the historical past and the path dependence in the formation of the informal economy during the transition
  • Students to know about the different practices and actors related to informal economy
  • Student to know about the mopral and legal implications of the embeddedness of informality in the contemporary Russian society
  • Students to realize the common roots and the different forms and impact of informal economy on different societies under transition
  • Students to be able to choose appropriate methods and techniques of research on different aspects and actors of the informal economy
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Business and the State: embedded corruption as a basis of the rent based economy
    The role of the State in the development of corrupt practices of business. Social regulation of the informal economy by the State: forms, mechanisms and economic and societal impact
  • Informal economy: definition and paradigms. Interplay of formal and informal norms and institutions
    Core definitions and approaches to informal economy in the academic literature
  • Moral and legal aspects of informality
    Informal economy and anomie, deviant behavior of public servants (lawyers, policemen etc.), bribes and the distrust in institutions
  • Methods and techniques to estimate the informal economy and its socio-economic role
    Quantitative and qualitative based projects to discover the informal economic activity in Russia and elated countries
  • Traditions of informal economy in Socialist Russia and its role during the transition
    Blat and its social and economic roots and functions
  • Different niches and actors of informal economic activity in the contemporary Russia
    Informal entrepreneurship, informal employment, 'garage economy', subsistence economy in rural areas, informal economy and migration
  • Comparing informal economy in Russia and other (Post-Socialist) countries
    Social and economic roots of informal economy in transitional societies, Approaches to measure the comparative level of informality; indexes of the shadow economy etc.
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Final essay
  • non-blocking Final colloqium
  • non-blocking in-class activity
  • non-blocking interim test
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (2 module)
    0.25 * Final colloqium + 0.3 * Final essay + 0.25 * in-class activity + 0.2 * interim test
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Alena Ledeneva. (2003). Informal Practices in Changing Societies: Comparing Chinese Guanxi and Russian Blat. UCL SSEES Economics and Business Working Paper Series. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.p.see.wpaper.45
  • Bribery and blat in Russia : negotiating reciprocity from the middle ages to the 1990s, , 2000
  • Christopher Swader, & Leon Kosals. (2013). Post-socialist anomie through the lens of economic modernization and the formalization of social control. HSE Working Papers. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.p.hig.wpaper.17.soc.2013
  • Colin C. Williams, & Jan Windebank. (2015). Evaluating competing theories of informal employment: some lessons from a 28-nation European survey. International Journal of Business and Globalisation, (1), 45. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.a.ids.ijbglo.v15y2015i1p45.62
  • Handbook of antisocial behavior, , 1997
  • Hartmut Lehmann, & Anzelika Zaiceva. (2014). Informal Employment in Russia: Definitions, Incidence, Determinants and Labor Market Segmentation. Center for Economic Research (RECent). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.p.mod.recent.098
  • Ledeneva, A. V. (2011). Doing business in Russia : informal practices and anti-corruption strategies / Alena Ledeneva; Stanislav Shekshnia. Paris: Institut Français des Relations Internationales. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.389421383
  • MEYER, I. (2019). Russia’s Informal Economy: Rules of the Game for Business. Demokratizatsiya, 27(1), 3–7. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=poh&AN=134241282
  • Migrant workers in Russia : global challenger of the shadow economy in society transformation, , 2017
  • Russia's economy of favours : Blat, networking and informal exchange, Ledeneva, A. V., 1999
  • The handbook of business and corruption : cross-sectoral experiences, , 2017
  • The informal economy : studies in advanced and less developed countries, , 1991
  • The informal economy in developing nations : hidden engine of innovation?, Kraemer - Mbula, E., 2016
  • The shadow economy : an international survey, Schneider, F., 2015
  • Williams, C. C. (2019). The Informal Economy. Newcastle upon Tyne: Agenda Publishing. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=2255685
  • Woodside, A. G., Man-Ling Chang, & Cheng-Feng Cheng. (2012). Government Regulations of Business, Corruption, Reforms, and the Economic Growth of Nations. International Journal of Business & Economics, 11(2), 127–142. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=bsu&AN=91272728

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Anna Lukiyanova. (2013). Earnings inequality and informal Employment in Russia. HSE Working Papers. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.p.hig.wpaper.37.ec.2013
  • Bellotti, E. (2015). Qualitative Networks : Mixed Methods in Sociological Research. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=830207
  • Belova, E., & Gregory, P. (2009). Political economy of crime and punishment under Stalin. Public Choice, 140(3/4), 463–478. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-009-9430-2
  • Blackstone, A. (2019). Principles of Sociological Inquiry : Qualitative and Quantitative Methods. Place of publication not identified: Saylor Foundation. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsotl&AN=edsotl.OTLid0000139
  • Colin C. Williams. (2015). Tackling informal employment in developing and transition economies: a critical evaluation of the neo-liberal approach. International Journal of Business and Globalisation, (3), 251. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.a.ids.ijbglo.v14y2015i3p251.270
  • Heusala, A.-L., & Aitamurto, K. (2017). Migrant Workers in Russia : Global Challenges of the Shadow Economy in Societal Transformation. London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1360414
  • Janis N. Kluge, & Alexander Libman. (2018). Sticks or Carrots? Comparing Effectiveness of Government Informal Economy Policies in Russia. Comparative Economic Studies, (4), 605. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41294-017-0042-4
  • Karabchuk, T. (2012). Informal employment in Russia: Why is it so sustainable? Economic Sociology_the European Electronic Newsletter, (2), 29. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.a.zbw.econso.155988
  • MARINESCU, C., & VALIMĂREANU, M. I. (2019). The main currents (schools) of thought about the informal economy. Review of International Comparative Management / Revista de Management Comparat International, 20(3), 312–316. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=bsu&AN=138646795
  • Measuring the global shadow economy : the prevalence of informal work and labour, Williams, C. C., 2016
  • Polese, A., & Morris, J. (2014). The Informal Post-Socialist Economy : Embedded Practices and Livelihoods. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=675562
  • Tax evasion and the shadow economy, , 2012
  • The Informal Economy and Post-Socialism:Imbricated Perspectives on Labor, the State, and Social Embeddedness. (2019). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.2BD10697