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Breaking the Unbreakable Union: Nationalism, Disintegration and the Soviet Economic Collapse

Suesse, Marvin LU (2018) In Economic Journal 128(615). p.2933-2967
Abstract
This paper investigates the effect of prospective secessions on economic integration and growth by examining the break-up of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Firstly, I show theoretically how regional elites had an incentive to restrict domestic trade once secession from the Union became possible. Secondly, I show empirically that the increased likelihood of secessions by the Union’s member republics strongly cut domestic trade. Thirdly, I show how this explains the severity of the Soviet output fall. These patterns persist once I instrument for prospective secessions with nationalist agendas that are exogenous to trade or growth.
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author
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Economic Journal
volume
128
issue
615
pages
34 pages
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • scopus:85044221582
ISSN
1468-0297
DOI
10.1111/ecoj.12564
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
f407b05f-41a6-447f-876e-2775b6f92ff4
date added to LUP
2019-05-15 22:44:14
date last changed
2025-10-14 11:55:10
@article{f407b05f-41a6-447f-876e-2775b6f92ff4,
  abstract     = {{This paper investigates the effect of prospective secessions on economic integration and growth by examining the break-up of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Firstly, I show theoretically how regional elites had an incentive to restrict domestic trade once secession from the Union became possible. Secondly, I show empirically that the increased likelihood of secessions by the Union’s member republics strongly cut domestic trade. Thirdly, I show how this explains the severity of the Soviet output fall. These patterns persist once I instrument for prospective secessions with nationalist agendas that are exogenous to trade or growth.}},
  author       = {{Suesse, Marvin}},
  issn         = {{1468-0297}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{615}},
  pages        = {{2933--2967}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Economic Journal}},
  title        = {{Breaking the Unbreakable Union: Nationalism, Disintegration and the Soviet Economic Collapse}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12564}},
  doi          = {{10.1111/ecoj.12564}},
  volume       = {{128}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}