Property Rights and Property Wrongs

Using six original surveys, this work challenges conventional understandings of Russia's politics and economics through an analysis of property battles.

The book explores how political power, elections, legal institutions, reputational concerns, and social norms shape economic conflicts from hostile takeovers to everyday disputes in contemporary Russia. The results challenge common conceptions of Russia's political economy and contribute to debates in economic development, comparative politics, and legal studies.Secure property rights are central to economic development and stable government, yet difficult to create. Relying on surveys in Russia from 2000 to 2012, Timothy Frye examines how political power, institutions, and norms shape property rights for firms. Through a series of simple survey experiments, Property Rights and Property Wrongs explores how political power, personal connections, elections, concerns for reputation, legal facts, and social norms influence property rights disputes from hostile corporate takeovers to debt collection to renationalization. This work argues that property rights in Russia are better seen as an evolving bargain between rulers and rightholders than as simply a reflection of economic transition, Russian culture, or a weak state. The result is a nuanced view of the political economy of Russia that contributes to central debates in economic development, comparative politics, and legal studies.