Analysis of the Role of Institutions and Technologies in Economic Growth of the Late USSR in a Cross-Country Comparison

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study aimed at defining the role of institutional and technological dynamics in the economic growth of the late USSR in comparison with reference countries. We propose a modification of the production function, similar to the exogenous growth model by Mankiw, Romer, Weil (1992) with physical and human capital, by augmenting it with variables for institutional and general technological components. We present our new estimates of the effects of an increase in physical and human capital in the late Soviet economy. Also, we obtain statistical assessments of the negative contribution of the decrease in the technological level of the industrial economy of the USSR. We partially confirm the hypothesis about the deterioration of the institutional environment in the USSR. But its negative contribution was not more decisive and more significant than in other countries. Thus, the idea of the doom of the Soviet economy, due to the substantial flaws of its institutions, was not confirmed. Finally, we discuss the prospective lines of further exploration into the issues under study.