Table Of ContentMIRRORS OF THE ECONOMY
A volume in the series
Cornell Studies in Political Economy
edited by Peter J. Katzenstein
A list of titles in this series is available at
www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.
MIRRORS OF
THE ECONOMY
National Accounts and International
Norms in Russia and Beyond
Yoshiko M. Herrera
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA AND LONDON
Copyright © 2010 by Cornell University
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First published 2010 by Cornell University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Herrera, Yoshiko M., 1970–
Mirrors of the economy : national accounts and international norms in Russia
and beyond / Yoshiko M. Herrera.
p. cm. — (Cornell studies in political economy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8014-4585-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. National income—Russia (Federation)—Accounting. 2. Russia (Federation)—
Economic conditions—1991—Statistics. 3. Russia (Federation)—Statistical
services. I. Title. II. Series: Cornell studies in political economy.
HC340.I5H47 2010
339.347—dc22 2010025716
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For G. Shizuko Herrera
and Agnes MacDougall Herrera
Contents
List of Tables and Figures ix
Preface xi
List of Acronyms xvii
Note on Translation and Transliteration xix
Introduction 1
1. A System of National Accounts: The Postcommunist
Transformation of Russian Statistics 16
2. Accounting for Implementation:
A Theory of Conditional Norms 44
3. Accidental Hegemony: How the System
of National Accounts Became an International Norm 64
4. Efficiency, Resources, and Capacity in the Implementation
of the SNA 94
5. Cui bono? Politicians, Statisticians, and
International Organizations in Russian
Implementation of the SNA 110
6. Professionals in the Service of the State:
The Organizational Identity of Russian Statisticians 137
7. Statistics as a Mirror of the Economy:
The SNA as a Conditional Norm 172
Conclusion 201
Appendix. SNA Milestone Assessment Guide 217
References 219
Index 243
Tables and Figures
Tables
0.1 Key Variables in Explanations of Institutional
Change and Implementation of International Institutions 13
2.1 Examples of Conditional Norms 57
4.1 The Effect of Income, State Capacity,
and Human Capital on SNA Milestone Level 102
5.1 Leadership of TsSU USSR and Goskomstat Russia 130
7.1 SNA Norms over Time 173
7.2 What System of National Accounts
Should Be Used in the USSR and Russia?
Articles from Vestnik statistiki, 1962–1993 187
7.3 Explanations for Changes to the
Statistical System of the USSR and Russia:
Articles from Vestnik statistiki, 1988–1993 191
Appendix SNA Milestone Assessment Guide 217
Figures
1.1 Average SNA Milestone Level by World Region, 1992–97 32
1.2 Conceptual Implementation of the 1993 SNA,
2002 Assessment 33
1.3 SNA Minimum Requirement Data Set,
2000–2004 Assessments 35
1.4 IMF Dissemination Standards Index, 2005 36
1.5 IMF Dissemination Standards, SDDS and GDDS, 2005 37
1.6 World Bank Statistical Capacity Indicator, 2009, by Region 37
ix
Preface
National accounting is not the most glamorous topic, nor even one that most
people have heard of. Yet the System of National Accounts (SNA) is the frame-
work for most of our information about the economic activity of countries
around the globe. Although national statisticians usually work behind the scenes,
we see the fruits of their labors every day in news about unemployment, gross
domestic product (GDP), analysis of when the recession might end, and so on.
Politicians, policy makers, and firms regularly make consequential decisions
based on economic information provided by the SNA.
The SNA, however, is a relatively new institution. It was developed at the
conceptual level in the mid-twentieth century, but even thereafter, a variety of
distinct national practices dominated. And why would countries not want to
measure their economies in different ways—why should Russia, Fiji, Nigeria, and
Canada use the same set of indicators and oblige themselves to follow the same
set of rules for measuring economic activity? The scope of the SNA as an interna-
tional institution and the level of cooperation and coordination that it demands
are nothing short of heroic.
A turning point for the SNA as the global norm for national accounting
came in the early 1990s, when adherents of an alternative system, the newly
postcommunist countries, dropped their Material Product System and enthu-
siastically embraced the SNA. Their decision is the story of this book. Why did
Russia and other postcommunist states abandon a system they had developed
and worked with for decades to adopt a competing international institution?
Was the SNA good and efficient and, from a Western perspective, the right
thing? Absolutely. The general history of postcommunist institutional reform,
however, has taken a different path. The story behind the decision requires
analysis of what went on in the Russian national statistical office, Goskomstat,
in the early 1990s.
To understand the decisions of Goskomstat statisticians, we have to consider
their identities and shared norms, their interests, and the political, economic,
and ideational context in which they worked. The research for this book, there-
fore, has taken me to many meetings with statisticians from Goskomstat. I con-
ducted extensive interviews in 2003–5 with Goskomstat officials in Moscow and
xi
xii PREFACE
in ten regions across Russia.1 To get at the historical development of identity
and norms at Goskomstat, I did a systematic content analysis of Goskomstat’s
monthly journal Vestnik statistiki from 1950 to 2000.2 Vestnik statistiki, the in-
house journal of Goskomstat, details internal organizational and methodologi-
cal debates.
But this is an international story as well, or more specifically an examination
of how the SNA became an international norm. Hence I have relied heavily on
documentation by national statisticians working at the international level and
on primary documents published by the UN, OECD, IMF, and the International
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank). I also did interviews
with statisticians in Washington, D.C., and officials in the United States and at
international organizations who worked with Goskomstat. Overall, the field-
work yielded over seventy-five interviews with a range of people who worked in
or with Goskomstat on the SNA.
Research for this book was made possible by generous funding from sev-
eral sources. The National Council for Eurasian and East European Research
(NCEEER) provided resources for fieldwork in Russia. The International Re-
search and Exchanges Board also supported a research trip for interviews. The
Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., provided
a short-term grant and was a valuable base for D.C interviews. I also received
funding from the Project on Russian Governance headed by Timothy Colton
and Stephen Holmes. Much of the research leave time for this project was pro-
vided by the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and the Weatherhead
Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. I am also grateful to the
University of Wisconsin, Madison, and in particular the Graduate School, the
International Institute, and the Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia
for research support in the final stages.
The Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology (IEA) of the Russian Academy
of Sciences, directed by Valery A. Tishkov, provided valuable logistical support
in Russia. In particular, Sergey Sokolovskiy of the IEA did much of the organi-
zational work and accompanied me on interviews; I thank him for his help as
well as his engaging conversation and commentary. Everyone should be so lucky
to travel across Russia and into the state bureaucracy with one of the country’s
leading anthropologists.
1. To protect officials from possible punishment for disclosure of information, I use coded num-
bers, e.g. “GKS24,” in attributing quotations from Goskomstat officials. Exceptions include the high-
est officials: Vladimir Sokolin, the former chairman of Goskomstat; and Irina Masakova, the head of
the SNA department. I also refer to independent analysts by name.
2. This journal was renamed Voprosy statistiki in 1994.
