The Soviet Union as a Redistributor

In this chapter we turn to a different aspect of the break-up of the Soviet Union: the end of fiscal redistribution. As we made clear in Chapter 1, redistribution of income among the parts of a single state is usually far more important than redistribution among independent states. Hence, we expect a change in the pattern of income redistribution on account of Soviet break-up. We discussed the magnitude of redistribution flows briefly in Chapter 2. Here we present a more detailed study.