Sarah Wilson Sokhey, Associate Professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, was invited by Michael Rochlitz to present her new research project “Russia Isn’t a Normal Oil State: Financial Rentierism under Putin” at the IERP Economic Colloquium on June 22. The paper is a joint research project with Amanda Zadorian (Higher School of Economics) who also joined the colloquium.

Sarah and Amanda plan to conduct a survey experiment in Russia to test whether there is a social policy contract between the state and citizens in Russia, whether Russian social policies fit financial rentierism model and how citizens’ expectations for what the state should provide are sensitive to the perception that the state is rich in oil wealth.