Tolerant and Tumultuous Trades: Russian Market Diversity
BY BRIDGET BUTKEVICH
A dangerous trend in economics is identifying homogenous ethnic groups with better outcomes.1 I do not use the word dangerous lightly, since outside of academia, violence is the most common expression of intolerance towards diversity. Marketplaces the world over are bastions of diversity that allow for individuals to utilize their comparative advantages. However, unlike the academic method of examination, some take this “homogenous hope” as a call to aggression. While positive group pride may be beneficial, the danger is when this unity crosses over into actions to remove different groups. There are many such tragic cases, but I will focus on the negative implications of this drive for homogeneity upon markets in Russia.
Russia is ethnically diverse, and the marketplaces are perceived as more diverse than the country as a whole. Since much of the trading markets are illegal and some of the traders are illegal immigrants, it is hard to get good figures on this. Nonetheless, this perception breeds action. Fortunately, some brave Russians willing to protect traders abate some of the hostile attacks by other Russians upon non-Russians. These attacks have not fallen since Russia’s return to growth starting in 2000, but instead have actually risen along with the economy.2 To get a concrete sense of this problem, I think it is valuable to examine actual market attacks.
On October 25, 2002 a dozen armed men entered one Russian marketplace yelling, “Everybody get on the ground!” A Moscow newspaper reported: “The motive of the attack became clear when the masked men started beating the dozen or so non-Russian traders while leaving anybody who looked Russian alone. One Azeri woman named Nadezhda … had her arm broken and ended up in the hospital, while many others suffered a range of injuries. The attackers then smashed stalls belonging to non-Russians. A lone (Russian) guard heroically managed to detain two of the attackers and handed them over to the police.”3 This shows the good and the bad within modern Russia. Some will risk their own well-being to protect others, while others will attack another person for simply belonging to a different ethnic group. The fact that one Russian got hurt by mistake shows how odd this ethnic distinction is, as ethnic Russians may be mistaken for being from another ethnicity because of their appearance.
This problem is exacerbated by political incitement of intolerance. One Russian governor blasts minorities’ control over markets, attacking both the market and migrants.4 Governor Aleksandr Tkachyov stated that immigrants “introduce unhealthy elements of rivalry into the measured life of the region … Groups which are brought together by ethnic principle take control of local markets, teach the young people to use drugs, and draw them into the criminal business…” He blamed these social problems on the ethnic diversity and new rivalry. However, it is his type of rhetoric that hurts ethnic minorities, the economy, and the future of all Russians.
Bridget Butkevich will receive her PhD in Economics from George Mason in August 2005. She will join the Department of Economics at James Madison University in September 2005.
- This work centers upon explanations for incomes differences across nations, including institutional arrangements (see Harold Berman, Law and Revolution, and Douglass North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance), technological advancement or pop ulation differences, informal cultural institutions, and eugenics (see David Levy, How the Dismal Science Got Its Name). [↩]
- See www.fsumonitor.com for daily reports on ethnic violence in Russia. [↩]
- Moskovsky Komsomolets reported on October 26, 2002, about an organized attack by skinheads against a marketplace in the Moscow Oblast city of Chekhovo. [↩]
- “Aleksandr Tkachyov: We Ourselves Will Bring About Order in Our Own House,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta. September 18, 2003. [↩]
