State Capacity and Local Economic Development: The Russian State in the Urals (with Gerda Asmus, Heidelberg University)

This study investigates the impact of state capacity on economic development at the subnational level. The analysis employs a geographic regression discontinuity along the boundary created by the largest peasant rebellion in 18th century Russia. It compares changes in income per capita and other economic outcomes in formerly rebel-held areas where the Russian state increased security forces and levied taxes more efficiently after the uprising ended, to those where it did not. The results show that by WWI, state capacity had fostered the provision of public goods such as roads and enabled human capital formation. It had a more limited impact on industrialization. The positive effects of increased state capacity on infrastructure have persisted until today, unlike those on industrialization and human capital accumulation