The Economic Consequences of Soviet Disintegration

A noted British economist and specialist in the affairs of the former USSR discusses the economic consequences of the disintegration that followed the coup d'etat in August 1991. The assessment begins with a look at inter-republican economic flows in an attempt to indicate the benefits, if any, derived by the individual republics from membership in a unified state. It follows with a brief overview of the “invisible” components of the balance of payments, deals with the gains and losses traced to the so-called common economic space, and sketches implications for the rest of the world. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: P20, F3, O1.