The Vanishing Rouble: Barter Networks and Non-Monetary Transactions in Post-Soviet Societies

by Paul Seabright (Editor)

Overview

This book is an accessible and authoritative analysis of the widespread use of barter in the countries of the former Soviet Union—one of the most dramatic, but least understood, aspects of the region's tortuous transition from planned to market economy. Written by a distinguished team of economists and other social scientists with minimal use of mathematics, the book is designed to appeal not just to area studies scholars with an interest in the transition process but also to economists and anthropologists interested in the role of money and social networks in modern societies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521790376
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/30/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	402
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.06(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction: barter networks and information islands Paul Seabright; Part I. Theory: 1. Some lasting thing: barter and the value of money Jayasri Dutta; 2. Barter Relationships Canice Prendergast and Lars Stole; 3. An anthropological view of barter in Russia Caroline Humphrey; Part II. Large Scale Empirical Studies: 4. Barter in post-Soviet societies: what does it look like and why does it matter? Alena Ledeneva and Paul Seabright; 5. Different types of non-monetary transaction in Russia Simon Commander and Christian Mummsen; 6. Barter in Russia Sergei Guriev and Barry W. Ickes; 7. The household in a non-monetary market economy Simon Clarke; 8. Barter in transition economies: competing explanations confront Ukrainian data Dalia Marin, Daniel Kaufmann and Bogdan Gorochowskij; 9. Barter and non-monetary transactions in transition economies: evidence from a cross-country survey Wendy Carlin, Steven Fries, Mark Schaffer and Paul Seabright; Part III. Ethnography: 10. How is barter done? The social relations of barter in provincial Russia Caroline Humphrey; 11. Shadow barter: economic necessity or economic crime? Alena Ledeneva; 12. Surrogate currencies and the wild market in Central Siberia David G. Anderson; 13. Bear skins and macaroni: the social life of things at the margins of a Siberian state collective Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov; Conclusion: what is to be done? Paul Seabright and Simon Commander.

Editorial Reviews

"...undoubtedly an important book...it provides a still rare example of how scholars from various professions can work together productively on the puzzling issues of the postsocialist transition." Slavic Review

From the Publisher