Barter in Russia: An Institutional Stage

TLDR: A significant number of publications by both domestic and foreign authors have been devoted to the theoretical interpretation of barter exchange, its origins and consequences, and methods of overcoming it as discussed by the authors.

Abstract: The phenomenon of barter as the principal form for making domestic transactions in industry sharply distinguishes Russia from other countries with transitional economies. In recent years, barter in our economy has clearly demonstrated its stability, viability, and scope. There are a significant number of publications by both domestic and foreign authors that are devoted to the theoretical interpretation of this phenomenon, its origins and consequences, and methods of overcoming it.1 Approaches to the explanation of barter are influenced by virtually all the principal areas of contemporary economic theory—neoclassical macroeconomics, which relegates the main role in the appearance of barter to the factors of inflation, monetization, and interest rate levels; neoclassical microeconomics, which considers the quantitative aspects of barter exchange from the standpoint of the principles of maximizing profits through the selection of the price and volume-product mix policies of enterprises in the barter and mon...