Recently, the co-authored paper titled "Russia's Industrial Policy and Economic Resilience Under Sanctions: Empirical Evidence Based on Industrial Cluster-Micro-Enterprise Data" by Professor Yu Miaojie, Fellow of the International Economic Association (IEA) and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of Liaoning University, and Xu Ruidi, a doctoral student at the Institute of Area Studies, Peking University, has been officially accepted and published in Russian Studies.
Abstract
Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia's economy has demonstrated considerable resilience despite facing economic sanctions and technological blockades imposed by the United States and Europe. This resilience is partly attributed to Russia's adoption of a "defensive" industrial policy, which aims to establish industrial security boundaries by strengthening government intervention in key sectors. As a crucial component of this framework, Russia's industrial cluster policy is designed to enhance the competitiveness of its domestic manufacturing industry and advance import substitution through a "leading role of large enterprises - government support and guidance" model.
Treating the establishment of industrial clusters as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper utilizes micro-level data of Russian enterprises and employs a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) method to analyze the impact of Russia's industrial policy on enterprises' operational resilience and its underlying mechanism. The empirical findings indicate that Russia's industrial cluster policy significantly improves enterprises' operational resilience. Mechanism analysis reveals that the industrial cluster policy promotes enterprises' operational resilience through three channels: alleviating financing constraints, empowering resource integration, and strengthening collaborative cooperation.
Extended analysis shows that the policy exerts a more pronounced impact on the operational resilience of private enterprises, small and micro-enterprises, and enterprises with low turnover rates. It also has a more significant effect on enterprises in traditional industries, labor-intensive industries, and those located in parts of Europe. Qualitative analysis suggests that Russia's industrial cluster policy is not yet sufficient to exert a noticeable driving effect on the regional macroeconomy, and its long-term effectiveness remains uncertain.
Journal Introduction
Russian Studies is an academic journal supervised by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and sponsored by East China Normal University. Focusing on research related to Russia and the Eurasian region, it holds significant influence in the field of area studies. Its regular topics mainly include studies on the politics, economy, history, culture, and foreign relations of Russia and Eurasian countries, as well as research on international relations theories and major power relations.
Author Introduction
Yu Miaojie serves as Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of Liaoning University. He is a Fellow of the International Economic Association (IEA), a Distinguished Professor of the "Changjiang Scholars Program", a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, an Outstanding Young Scientist of Beijing, and a Boya Distinguished Professor of Peking University. Currently, he holds positions as a Deputy to the 14th National People's Congress and a Special Supervisor of the National Supervisory Commission. He also serves as an Associate Editor of Economic Journal, a top international academic journal in economics.
Professor Yu enjoys the Special Government Allowance awarded by the State Council. He is among the top 1% highly cited economists in the global management and economics field, and to date, he is the only Chinese scholar who has won the "Royal Economic Society Prize".
Xu Ruidi is a doctoral student at the Institute of Area Studies, Peking University (jointly educated at St. Petersburg State University, Russia). Her research primarily focuses on area studies of Russia and the Eurasian region, with specific interests in the world economy, the Russian economy, and China-Russia economic and trade cooperation.
Her research findings have been published in domestic and international academic journals such as Journal of International Trade and International Economic Cooperation, as well as in well-known domestic media outlets including The Paper. She has also participated in a number of major projects funded by the National Social Science Fund of China, along with consulting work and research projects commissioned by central and government departments.
