SIDE-ISLE 2019 Conference

At the end of December 15th annual conference SIDE-ISLE 2019 (Italian Society of Law and Ecomonics) was held at the University of Milan. Anton Kazun, research fellow of the ISCID took part in the conference

Italian Society of Law and Ecomonics (ISLE) - is one of the largest in Europe, and the annual meeting of the association is one of the largest conferences in law and economics taking place worldwide. Anton Kazun read a paper "Management of Violence: Effect of Regional Authorities on Corporate Raiding in Russia"

Abstract: In this paper, we analyze the process of renegotiation of the informal contract between the regional and federal elites of Russia after the economic crisis. We use data from 550 court cases against entrepreneurs in the Center of Public Procedures’ “Business against corruption” (CPP BAC) database to show that, after 2011, regional elites in Russia lost the preexisting opportunity to extract rents from businesses in return for favorable election results for Vladimir Putin and United Russia. We also analyze the connection between the level of corporate raiding in various Russian regions and the political competition, tenure, and ties of their governors. We show that there are two distinct models for fighting raiding in a region: an authoritarian model for suppressing negative signals and a competitive model with the creation of a new consensus among the elites. The first model is most effectively implemented by experienced governors with local ties. The second model of control can be used by new governors in regions with strong political competition. Although both models are similar in terms of the absence of negative signals to the Kremlin, they have very different consequences in the business context of an area.

Final verision of the conference program is avaliable here