Project representative:
Satoshi Mizobata(Specially Appointed Professor/Institute of Economic Research/Kyoto University)

Collaborating researchers and co-researchers:
・Hiroaki Hayashi(Professor/Economic Faculty/Ritsumeikan University)
・Takuma Kobayashi(Associate professor/Economic Faculty/Matsuyama University)
・Geoffrey Wood(Professor, Chair/Department of Management & Organizational Studies/Western University)
・Yang Yao(Professor/The China Center for Economic Research/Peking University)
・Victor Gorshkov(Associate professor/University of Niigata Prefecture)

Introducing this project

This research aims to examine economic resilience and its constraints in China and Russia and to raise a new approach to China-Russia comparative economics. Authoritarian regimes become surveillance states, which cause great friction with civil society and democracy. However, the population acquires comfort (resilience) in exchange for this friction.

In contrast to China, where well-being is oriented towards the GDP and manufacturing competitiveness, Russia relies on redistribution and social benefits rather than the GDP to seek stability. In Russia, the friction between the warfare state versus the welfare state has become apparent with the invasion of Ukraine. It appears natural that a state of strength would be inclined towards the former, but to retain its strength, it must be inclined towards the latter. Crisis- and sanctions-resistant economies are on top of this dilemma. Therefore, social benefits were even positioned as a takeover instrument against the population. As the state’s areas of penetration have deepened, the cost of guaranteeing sanction resistance (takeover costs) has also increased. A comparative analysis of the emerging CSR also suggests a strong impact from the government.

Although there are constraints on the resources available to support resilience, it is unlikely that value changes will occur in the long term. A study of the economic institutions of resilience, therefore, provides a new perspective for analyzing authoritarian economic systems.

The comparative economic approach of Russia and China tend to lean towards a macroeconomic policy and surveillance from above by authoritarian regimes, but the institutions for regime stabilization and the resilience they rely on provide a breakthrough for new comparative studies.