Prospects for Russia’s Economic Reforms

Jeffrey D. Sachs and

JDS

Jeffrey D. Sachs

David Lipton

DL

David Lipton

Discussants: Edmund S. Phelps and

ESP

Edmund S. Phelps Columbia University

Vladimir Mau

VM

Vladimir Mau

AT THE START of 1992, less than six months after the fall of communism and less than one month after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia embarked with remarkable dispatch on a program of radical economic reforms. The economic reforms themselves, under the direction of Acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, combined with the collapse of the Soviet state, have created an enormous opening for decentralized, market-based economic activity. Within a short period of eight months, almost all centralized operations of the command economy ceased; meanwhile, new commercial structures are developing rapidly. Spontaneous market activity is evident not only in the “kiosk boom” of Moscow, but also in growing market-based trade within Russia and between Russia and the rest of the world.