Oligarchs and Ownership Chains: Political Economy in Ukraine Before and After the Orange Revolutions

Scott Gehlbach is a political economist and comparativist, whose work is motivated by the contemporary and historical experience of Russia, Ukraine, and other postcommunist states. He has made numerous contributions to the study of autocracy, economic reform, political connections, and other important topics in political economy. In this talk, he will share recent research with John S. Earle, Solomiya Shpak, and Anton Shirikov, where they link information from investigative journalists on the key holdings of numerous Ukrainian oligarchs with firm-level administrative data on formal ownership ties to examine defensive ownership. They also exploit the variation in political connections caused by the Orange Revolution. Prof. Gelbach will share the results of this analysis, which shows evidence of defensive ownership.

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