Policy brief: The Belarus economy was already struggling to generate growth before both the corona pandemic and the political protests following the August presidential election. The lack of growth was the result of an incomplete transition process to modernize the economy combined with a strong reliance on the Russian economy and its dependence on international commodity prices that have not paid off in recent years. With the added political turmoil and, so far, lack of a new political and economic strategy, the economic outlook for Belarus looks grim. Even if a full-blown crisis may be avoided by restrictive economic policies, stagnation will nevertheless be the most likely outcome without fundamental reforms.

Policy brief: Russia’s real GDP fell by a modest 3 percent in 2020. The question addressed here is how a major oil-exporting country can go through the COVID-19 pandemic with a decline of this magnitude when oil prices fell by 35 percent at the same time as the domestic economy suffered from lock-downs. The short answer is that it is mainly a statistical mirage. Read the policy brief to learn more!

New research on innovation suggests that employees that are curious about mastering their workplace, and that desire to work more effectively, will have a higher ability to find useful information in the global marketplace and commercialize it.

After having been relatively mildly affected in the first wave, Eastern Europe is currently in the midst of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with much higher levels of infected and dead compared to the spring. This health crisis not only has economic consequences, but also has contributed to political instability in parts of the region. Learn more on the presentations and discussions held at the SITE Development Day conference 2020!

Every week, the Swedish state pumps billions in support, grants and investments to keep Sweden in the roll. How can Sweden - which for many years saved money to reduce the central government debt - now offer a gigantic bill of money? Where does all this money come from? Torbjörn Becker explains in the latest episode of SVT Aktuellt.

Russia’s oil dependence will once again contribute to an economic downturn that most certainly will follow the Covid-19 outbreak in Russia as in other countries. The decline in oil prices alone could lead to a drop in GDP of more than 8 percent. Will Russia face difficult trade-offs in dealing with the crisis at a time?

Although significant growth has been achieved since 2000, all of this came in the first two tenures of Putin in the Kremlin during the increasing oil prices. But is Russia still a hostage to the whims of international oil market?

On December 16-17, 2019, the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics hosted the annual Academic Conference at the Stockholm School of Economics that brought together researchers and scholars in economics and political science from all over Europe and North America contributing to a better understanding of the political economy of Eastern Europe.

Working paper: This paper looks at economic growth and its fundamental determinants in Russia over the last decades. It starts by showing that, contrary to the views of some political commentators, growth is highly important for the popularity of president Putin.

Working paper: This paper looks at how the Russian economy has developed under the leadership of Putin and how it spills over to its neighbours in the CIS region.