Abstract

We study discrimination against Jewish entrepreneurs in the Russian Empire. Although the Russian Jewish community as a whole faced various legal restrictions throughout the 19th century, specific exemptions allowed members of the Jewish commercial elite to engage in business activities on par with their non-Jewish counterparts. This started to change in 1890, when some newly issued corporate charters excluded Jews from participating as managers and/or investors. Russian law required all corporate charters to be approved by the central government, which, as we argue, created an opportunity to target corporations in specific industries and/or locations. We explore the possible political economy mechanisms behind this type of discrimination using corporation- and factory-level data and discuss their implications for Russia's economic development prior to World War I.

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Reference

Imil Nurutdinov ( IAST), “Discrimination, Market Entry Barriers, and Corporations in Imperial Russia (with Eugenia Nazrullaeva) CANCELED”, IAST Lunch Seminar, Toulouse: IAST, May 25, 2021, 12:45–13:45, room zoom.