Crime in Russia: Implications for the Development of Training Programs for Russian Entrepreneurs
探讨俄罗斯向市场经济转型中犯罪问题的根源，指出法律体系缺失、产权不明、资本市场不完善等制度缺陷，为设计针对俄罗斯企业家的培训项目提供参考。
Russia's Free Market Transition In 1991, Russia began its passage toward a free market economy by dissolving the Soviet Union and setting up a democratic government under the current President, Boris Yeltsin. As a part of this process, the government planned to privatize state-owned enterprises and to require them to survive or fail based upon their own profits rather than on state subsidies funneled through the Central Bank. Simultaneously, the development of new private businesses was to be permitted and encouraged, as was the private ownership of property and the accumulation of wealth. To date, although Russia has succeeded in privatizing approximately 80 percent of its large and mid-size enterprises and many new businesses have emerged (Intriligator 1994), the ride has been a bumpy one. Many of the systems and institutions required for an effective free market economy are still not in place (International Monetary Fund 1995). Russia still lacks a legal system which covers both business law and property law and a system of property rights, making it difficult or even impossible to define the ownership of assets or to transfer assets from one owner or set of owners to another. For example, in the United States, although a public corporation has many stakeholders including stockholders, creditors, employees, managers, and customers, it is very clear that the stockholders are the owners of the corporation and have the power to transfer ownership through the sale of shares. This relationship is not clear in Russia, particularly in the larger companies which have been privatized. Further, although Russia has legislation protecting intellectual property fights including copyrights and patents, there is no effective means of enforcement. As an example, it is estimated that 94 percent of the software available in Russia in 1994 was pirated (American Chamber of Commerce in Russia 1995). The inability to define ownership rights also creates problems in instances of bankruptcy and attempts to use assets as collateral for a bank loan. In the case of bankruptcy, various classes of creditors are satisfied in priority order by liquidation of the firm's assets. If the ownership of assets cannot be clarified at the outset, creditors will be unwilling to invest. The same holds true for bank loans. In the United States, many loans are only g ranted if there is collateral which can be taken in the event of nonpayment. Obviously, the borrower needs to be able to prove ownership of the assets he is pledging as collateral. The lack of a legal system to define and protect property rights in Russia discourages many potential lenders and investors. Russia's capital markets are also largely undeveloped. Although Russia has a number of commercial banks and a Central Bank, it does not have a well-developed banking system capable of channeling capital from those who save to those who require credit. Traditionally, all of the banks were state-owned, and the Central Bank was used as a vehicle for channeling capital from the government into state-owned enterprises which could not support themselves. Today there are many privately-owned banks, but over 80 percent of them have less than $100,000 in capital (Hill and Slavinski 1994), making it impossible for them to serve as effective financial intermediaries. Further, many banks in Russia were formed primarily as a vehicle for making loans to major shareholders, a practice referred to as connected lending. Obviously, although such banks have capital, it is not really available to businesses in the private sector. Although in theory the Central Bank has responsibility for supervising and regulating Russia's more than 1700 banks, bank oversight is in fact spotty at best and inconsistent from one bank to the next. In addition, the Central Bank has very limited authority to intervene and enforce change (World Bank 1993). Like the banking industry, the securities industry in Russia is undeveloped and unregulated. …