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The Adoption of Costly Vet Practices in Russia’s Regions
NRU HSE
,
2016.
No. 05.
Marques II I., Remington T. F., Bazavliuk V.
How and when are governments able to set up institutionally complex, costly forms of public-private partnerships (PPP) with firms in order to develop skill in the absence of strong civil society organizations, such as trade unions and business associations? In much of the literature on professional education, credible commitment is the key to co-investment between different firms, between capital and labor, and between the broader business community and the state. This is generally achieved through the joint efforts of civil society – employers’ associations and labor unions – and the state, resulting in institutionally complex, cooperative forms of Vocational Education and Training (VET). Russia’s regions present a paradox for this literature. On the one hand, many regions are characterized by institutionally complex, costly forms of PPP that require close cooperation between firms and schools. On the other hand, civil society is weak in Russia and the lack of high quality institutions make firms more vulnerable to co-investment losses due to unwillingness of lower level officials – particularly school officials – to exert effort to fulfill their PPP responsibilities. This paper tests two theories that might explain the emergence of costly forms of PPP in Russia’s regions – state capacity and political accountability. We test these theories using unique data on all PPP in VET undertaken by over 1,654 secondary vocational education schools across Russia’s regions. We find that state capacity is strongly associated with the emergence of costly forms of PPP, as are both political competition and integration of business people into regional legislatures.
Language:
English