‘Enemies of the people’ were the millions of artists, engineers, managers, or professors who were thought to be a threat to the Soviet regime solely for being the educated elite. Along with millions of non-political prisoners, they were forcedly resettled to the Gulag, the system of labour camps across the Soviet Union. This column looks at the long-run consequences of this dark resettlement episode. It shows that areas around camps with a larger share of enemies of the people among camp prisoners are more prosperous today, as captured by firms’ wages and profits, as well as night lights per capita.
Marcus Miller, Jennifer C Smith, 10 January 2008
In capitalist economies, firms pay higher wages to motivate workers who fear unemployment. In Soviet Russia, Stalin used the Gulag to discipline workers. The economic rationale of the ‘efficiency wage’ model helps explain the cruel brutality of Stalin’s prison camps.
Related
-
Richard Portes
Most Read
-
Égert, de La Maisonneuve, Turner
-
Chaudhary, Viswanath-Natraj
-
Huber
-
Frey, Presidente
-
Mahlstein, McDaniel, Schropp, Tsigas
-
Burgess, Sievertsen
-
Eichengreen, O'Rourke
-
Mitze, Kosfeld, Rode, Wälde
-
Heldring, Robinson
-
Allen
Blogs&Reviews
-
Carraro, Cœuré, Dhand, Eichengreen, Mills, Rey, Sapir, Schwarzer
-
Evenett
-
Fullerton, Levinson
-
Hoffmann, Moench, Pavlova, Schultefrankenfeld
-
Reichlin, Adam, McKibbin, McMahon, Reis, Ricco, Weder di Mauro
Don't Miss
Duffie, Foucault, Veldkamp, Vives
Di Maio, Brück
Events
-
14 - 17 June 2022 / University of Pisa, Dep. Economics and Management / University of Pisa, Dep. Economics and Management
-
22 - 24 June 2022 / Lucca, Italy /
-
5 - 15 July 2022 / Warwick/Coventry / University of Warwick
-
11 - 13 July 2022 / / National Council of Applied Economic Researach (NCAER)
-
22 - 23 August 2022 / Palais Coburg, Vienna, Austria / WU Vienna University of Economics and Business Research Institute for Capital Markets (ISK)
CEPR Policy Research
-
Gobillon, Solignac
-
Giglio, Maggiori, Stroebel, Weber
-
Summers, Fatás
-
Favero, Galasso
-
Butt, Churm, McMahon, Morotz, Schanz
-
Eichengreen, Avgouleas, Poiares Maduro, Panizza, Portes, Weder di Mauro, Wyplosz, Zettelmeyer
-
Baldwin, Beck, Bénassy-Quéré, Blanchard, Corsetti, De Grauwe, den Haan, Giavazzi, Gros, Kalemli-Ozcan, Micossi, Papaioannou, Pesenti, Pissarides , Tabellini, Weder di Mauro
-
Baldwin, Nakatomi
-
Thimann
-
Goodhart, Perotti