| Download Document |
| Document Type: |
General |
| Publish Date: |
March 1995 |
| Primary Author: |
Alain BERTAUD and Bertrand RENAUD |
| Edited By: |
Suneela Farooqi |
| Published By: |
The World Bank |
This paper describes the structure of Russian cities after seventy years of Soviet development. This is the longest socialist experience on record and its results are of paramount interest to urban economists. In the absence of price signals and economic incentives to recycle land over time, the administrative-command process has led to a startling pattern of land use. Its central feature is a perverse population density gradient which rises as one moves away from the center of the city. The Soviet city is also characterized by rusting factories in prime locations and distant residential areas in the suburbs. Such a structure tends to maximize the economic and social inefficiency of the socialist city and environmental ill-effects. Real estate prices are now emerging with market-oriented urban reforms.
