Yevgeny Kuznetsov - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Yevgeny Kuznetsov
African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, 2014
This article focuses on role models of modern innovation based development and public interventio... more This article focuses on role models of modern innovation based development and public interventions to diffuse and scale up these role models. It discusses the so-called bridge institutions of innovation, which transform skills into knowledge valued by markets. It shows how these institutions (science and technology parks, international universities and skilled diaspora networks) promote innovation and create high productivity employment. Policy to promote innovation is, therefore, designed as a process with endogenous dynamics, where one-step follows the other and evolves in three time horizons: immediate (entry points), medium term (the critical mass effect) and long-term (major structural reforms). Case studies from North African countries indicate that entry points are numerous and more common than originally expected and that key issues are mostly linked to building critical mass in the medium term, and achieving structural reforms and cultural change in the longterm.
The paper introduces a reform trajectory we call 'revolutionary incrementalism' in which ... more The paper introduces a reform trajectory we call 'revolutionary incrementalism' in which partial and incremental measures add up to profound transformation. Recent advances in economic theory demonstrate that growth is not hard to start: it almost starts itself, somewhere, sometimes. But keeping it going is not easy: doing so requires attention to the context of growth-binding constraints and situation-specific ways to resolve them. The same goes for institutions: it is almost always possible to find some that are working. The issue is using the ones that work to improve those that don't. The thrust of the proposal is to rely on variation within existing institutions as the 'Archimedean lever' with which to leverage reform and change. India's public sector record for implementing and coordinating innovation efforts can be notoriously fragmented and inefficient but there are some parts that perform better than others, and there are recognized pockets of excell...
Actors in developing economies must have the capacity to acquire new knowledge—to learn new ways ... more Actors in developing economies must have the capacity to acquire new knowledge—to learn new ways of doing things—if they are to compete in the world economy. 1 Learning, in turn, supposes and contributes to the ability to search out and usefully recombine scattered information about production methods, markets, and resources. Because development depends on learning and learning depends on searching, development almost invariably depends on linking the domestic economy to the larger, outside world, because even the strongest economies quickly rediscover (if they have ever forgotten) that they cannot generate all state-of-the-art ideas in isolation. International mobility of talent and its most visible manifestation, brain drain (usually defined as the migration of human capital from less to more developed economies), is central for learning and development. This volume takes two key stylized facts about the international mobility of skills as given. First, it accepts that there are l...
The chapter discusses a new open economy industrial policy, a set of procedures institutionalizin... more The chapter discusses a new open economy industrial policy, a set of procedures institutionalizing disciplined experimental search for capacity-enhancing connections to the global economy. The key discipline is diagnostic (problem solving) monitoring of a relevant project portfolio. We introduce the notion of a “Schumpeterian development agency”—with the capability and motivation to experiment, make mistakes, and correct them—and give recommendations on how to graft embryos of a Schumpeterian development agency and diagnostic monitoring procedure into smart specialization practice and methodology.
bl ic Di sc lo su re A ut ho riz ed Pu bl ic Di sc lo su re A ut ho riz ed Pu bl ic Di sc lo su r... more bl ic Di sc lo su re A ut ho riz ed Pu bl ic Di sc lo su re A ut ho riz ed Pu bl ic Di sc lo su re A ut ho riz ed Pu bl ic Di sc lo su re A ut ho riz ed
The paper introduces a reform trajectory we call ?revolutionary incrementalism? in which partial ... more The paper introduces a reform trajectory we call ?revolutionary incrementalism? in which partial and incremental measures add up to profound transformation. Recent advances in economic theory demonstrate that growth is not hard to start: it almost starts itself, somewhere, sometimes. But keeping it going is not easy: doing so requires attention to the context of growth binding constraints and situation-specific ways to resolve them. The same goes for institutions: it is almost always possible to find some that are working. The issue is using the ones that work to improve those that don?t. The thrust of the proposal is to rely on variation within existing institutions as the ?Archimedean lever? with which to leverage reform and change. India?s public sector record for implementing and coordinating innovation efforts can be notoriously fragmented and inefficient but there are some parts that perform better than others, and there are recognized pockets of excellence virtually within ev...
Research Papers in Economics, 1995
Trade and capital flows between Russia and the rest of the world are now significant for both par... more Trade and capital flows between Russia and the rest of the world are now significant for both partners. The economic reforms introduced in Russia since 1991 have converted an autarkic, highly regulated economy into a relatively open one. The dramatic change followed from the abolition of central planning and complex exchange rate controls as Yeltsin came to power in Russia and the Soviet Union collapsed. Yet the years since 1991 are not simply a record of tearing down trade barriers. Instead Russia's role in the international economy appears to be erratic and inconsistent. Also the transformation of earlier inter-republic deliveries between former republics of the Soviet Union to trade between independent states implied the sometimes controversial establishment of new trade barriers. The country's struggle to develop a viable trade policy provides unique insights into the consequences of the conflicts of economic ideas: free trade versus protectionism; rewards for economic e...
This note draws a parallel between a venture entrepreneur developing her high-risk high return ve... more This note draws a parallel between a venture entrepreneur developing her high-risk high return venture with the help of a network of professional service providers and investors and a diaspora member constructing, with support of her own problem-solving networks, a portfolio of project with her home countrys institutions. Such a portfolio may consist of three segments: low risk- low impact initiative; medium risk- medium-impact; high risk, high impact. Such a portfolio-based approach to home country- diaspora interactions allows for the perfect combination of policies and programs to promote home country development, and enables policy-makers to engage in a process of natural experimentation, introducing and observing variation in the policy context, economic outcomes, and the connection between them. The key question for policy makers and donors is how they can support, i.e. help to design, finance, and grow such portfolios of projects of diaspora members in their home countries.
Contents Foreword Demetrios G. Papademetriou / Kathleen Newland (MPI) Part I: Talent Abroad and I... more Contents Foreword Demetrios G. Papademetriou / Kathleen Newland (MPI) Part I: Talent Abroad and Institutional Dynamics at Home: Conceptual Issues 1. Introduction and Overview, Yevgeny Kuznetsov (World Bank) 2. Passions Fuelling Interests: Unraveling Motivation of Diaspora Entrepreneurs Jennifer Brinkerhoff (George Washington University) Part II: Global Search for Local Solutions: Role of Diasporas 3. Diaspora Elites Supporting India's Institutional Development: Responding to Big Challenges in Infrastructure and Public Service Provision Devesh Kapur (University of Pennsylvania) 4. Africa's Talent Abroad Supporting Institutional Development in Africa Tanja Faller (African Development Bank) 5. Tacit Skills Formation and Labor Market Incorporation of Mexican Immigrants in the United States Natasha Iskander (New York University, USA) and Nichola Lowe (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA) 6. Diasporas as Part of the Country: Skills Abroad for Reform Dynamics at Home Y...
This chapter provides historical evidence of innovation-led structural changes at the subnational... more This chapter provides historical evidence of innovation-led structural changes at the subnational level in high-middle income economies, with particular emphasis on economies characterized by a significant knowledge base and weak institutions. Although manifestly not the outcome of smart specialization policy, the examples of self-discovery, entrepreneurship, and experimentation discussed here describe real-life smart specialization processes. Lessons are drawn to inform RIS3 policy design and implementation: (1) most success stories occurred spontaneously, with limited policy interventions, and were led by self-discovery of private and public actors; (2) regional development is usually a by-product of the national or global success of private first movers that can initiate exclaves but may fail to become developed regional clusters; (3) “critical mass” of capabilities is a key policy problem at the subnational level; (4) collective action and coordination problems impede the RIS3 p...
T his article was motivated by my first-hand experience with defense industry downsizing in Russi... more T his article was motivated by my first-hand experience with defense industry downsizing in Russia in 1992 through early 1994 and by discussions with Russian defense industry managers. 1 have arrived at four conclusions, each of which somewhat contradicts conventional wisdom: 1. There is a significant heterogeneity in productivity levels and technological levels of capital stock amongdefense enterprises. 2. The entrepreneurial potential of defense enterprise managers is just as diverse as the physical capital stock. Many of them are brilliant Schumpeterian entrepreneurs even under the unfavorable conditions of institutional vacuum and monetary austerity that followed price liberalization in Russia. Others, however, are unable to adjust to the realities of the nascent market and should be replaced. 3. In restructuring ventures, access to capital and inputs takes place not via formal economic institutions but through personal networks, which were traditionally very strong and still ar...
The Challenges of Technology and Economic Catch-up in Emerging Economies, 2021
The chapter extends the familiar Schumpeterian notion of creative destruction to the public-secto... more The chapter extends the familiar Schumpeterian notion of creative destruction to the public-sector domain by asking a practical “how to” question: how policymakers can set priorities assuming that they have neither the panoramic view of the economy nor good capabilities to learn. The key notion is a trial-and-error policy process—with new experimentalist public programs and policies at the center—which shifts attention from one-time choice to incremental and continuous error-detection and correction of policy choices. Central governance procedure of such policy process is diagnostic monitoring which motivates stakeholders to learn by revealing both mistakes and new possibilities for action. Such problem-solving monitoring is contrasted with conventional (accounting) monitoring. Echoing the industry life-cycle literature, a policy life cycle of a new experimentalist program is introduced. A distinction is made between experimental policy process in the managerial sense (medium-term h...
World Bank Publications, 2010
As developing countries embark on the policy agenda of innovation-based growth, they face on acut... more As developing countries embark on the policy agenda of innovation-based growth, they face on acute shortage of competent individual who know the country well, but who are not part of the 'status qua' and there for have no vested interests other then the best possible country outcome. Paradoxically, the search for these individuals often leads to the country's talent abroad its skilled diaspora. The best and brightest, who are crucial for innovation, have often left the country in search of better opportunities. The usual policy focus encourage return of talent to the home country is often neither realistic nor necessary: members of skilled diasporas can just as effectively engage in joint continuous projects with the home country without permanently relocating to it: a phenomenon called 'brain circulation.'
... In order to intensify the research communication within the network we are glad that Yevgeny ... more ... In order to intensify the research communication within the network we are glad that Yevgeny Kuznetzov1 gave us the permission to reproduce his ... and susceptible to change than the The notable exceptions are manuscripts of L. Tayior (1991) and Zhukov and Vorobyov (1991). ...
... These include: Lakshmi Mittal - involved in the iron and steel industry. ... include: Rajat G... more ... These include: Lakshmi Mittal - involved in the iron and steel industry. ... include: Rajat Gupta, Managing Director, McKinsey and Co.; Victor Menezes, Senior President, Citigroup; Rono Dutta, CEO, United Airlines; Vijay Gordia, CEO, Vinmar International Ltd.; Shailesh Mehta, CEO ...
African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, 2014
This article focuses on role models of modern innovation based development and public interventio... more This article focuses on role models of modern innovation based development and public interventions to diffuse and scale up these role models. It discusses the so-called bridge institutions of innovation, which transform skills into knowledge valued by markets. It shows how these institutions (science and technology parks, international universities and skilled diaspora networks) promote innovation and create high productivity employment. Policy to promote innovation is, therefore, designed as a process with endogenous dynamics, where one-step follows the other and evolves in three time horizons: immediate (entry points), medium term (the critical mass effect) and long-term (major structural reforms). Case studies from North African countries indicate that entry points are numerous and more common than originally expected and that key issues are mostly linked to building critical mass in the medium term, and achieving structural reforms and cultural change in the longterm.
The paper introduces a reform trajectory we call 'revolutionary incrementalism' in which ... more The paper introduces a reform trajectory we call 'revolutionary incrementalism' in which partial and incremental measures add up to profound transformation. Recent advances in economic theory demonstrate that growth is not hard to start: it almost starts itself, somewhere, sometimes. But keeping it going is not easy: doing so requires attention to the context of growth-binding constraints and situation-specific ways to resolve them. The same goes for institutions: it is almost always possible to find some that are working. The issue is using the ones that work to improve those that don't. The thrust of the proposal is to rely on variation within existing institutions as the 'Archimedean lever' with which to leverage reform and change. India's public sector record for implementing and coordinating innovation efforts can be notoriously fragmented and inefficient but there are some parts that perform better than others, and there are recognized pockets of excell...
Actors in developing economies must have the capacity to acquire new knowledge—to learn new ways ... more Actors in developing economies must have the capacity to acquire new knowledge—to learn new ways of doing things—if they are to compete in the world economy. 1 Learning, in turn, supposes and contributes to the ability to search out and usefully recombine scattered information about production methods, markets, and resources. Because development depends on learning and learning depends on searching, development almost invariably depends on linking the domestic economy to the larger, outside world, because even the strongest economies quickly rediscover (if they have ever forgotten) that they cannot generate all state-of-the-art ideas in isolation. International mobility of talent and its most visible manifestation, brain drain (usually defined as the migration of human capital from less to more developed economies), is central for learning and development. This volume takes two key stylized facts about the international mobility of skills as given. First, it accepts that there are l...
The chapter discusses a new open economy industrial policy, a set of procedures institutionalizin... more The chapter discusses a new open economy industrial policy, a set of procedures institutionalizing disciplined experimental search for capacity-enhancing connections to the global economy. The key discipline is diagnostic (problem solving) monitoring of a relevant project portfolio. We introduce the notion of a “Schumpeterian development agency”—with the capability and motivation to experiment, make mistakes, and correct them—and give recommendations on how to graft embryos of a Schumpeterian development agency and diagnostic monitoring procedure into smart specialization practice and methodology.
bl ic Di sc lo su re A ut ho riz ed Pu bl ic Di sc lo su re A ut ho riz ed Pu bl ic Di sc lo su r... more bl ic Di sc lo su re A ut ho riz ed Pu bl ic Di sc lo su re A ut ho riz ed Pu bl ic Di sc lo su re A ut ho riz ed Pu bl ic Di sc lo su re A ut ho riz ed
The paper introduces a reform trajectory we call ?revolutionary incrementalism? in which partial ... more The paper introduces a reform trajectory we call ?revolutionary incrementalism? in which partial and incremental measures add up to profound transformation. Recent advances in economic theory demonstrate that growth is not hard to start: it almost starts itself, somewhere, sometimes. But keeping it going is not easy: doing so requires attention to the context of growth binding constraints and situation-specific ways to resolve them. The same goes for institutions: it is almost always possible to find some that are working. The issue is using the ones that work to improve those that don?t. The thrust of the proposal is to rely on variation within existing institutions as the ?Archimedean lever? with which to leverage reform and change. India?s public sector record for implementing and coordinating innovation efforts can be notoriously fragmented and inefficient but there are some parts that perform better than others, and there are recognized pockets of excellence virtually within ev...
Research Papers in Economics, 1995
Trade and capital flows between Russia and the rest of the world are now significant for both par... more Trade and capital flows between Russia and the rest of the world are now significant for both partners. The economic reforms introduced in Russia since 1991 have converted an autarkic, highly regulated economy into a relatively open one. The dramatic change followed from the abolition of central planning and complex exchange rate controls as Yeltsin came to power in Russia and the Soviet Union collapsed. Yet the years since 1991 are not simply a record of tearing down trade barriers. Instead Russia's role in the international economy appears to be erratic and inconsistent. Also the transformation of earlier inter-republic deliveries between former republics of the Soviet Union to trade between independent states implied the sometimes controversial establishment of new trade barriers. The country's struggle to develop a viable trade policy provides unique insights into the consequences of the conflicts of economic ideas: free trade versus protectionism; rewards for economic e...
This note draws a parallel between a venture entrepreneur developing her high-risk high return ve... more This note draws a parallel between a venture entrepreneur developing her high-risk high return venture with the help of a network of professional service providers and investors and a diaspora member constructing, with support of her own problem-solving networks, a portfolio of project with her home countrys institutions. Such a portfolio may consist of three segments: low risk- low impact initiative; medium risk- medium-impact; high risk, high impact. Such a portfolio-based approach to home country- diaspora interactions allows for the perfect combination of policies and programs to promote home country development, and enables policy-makers to engage in a process of natural experimentation, introducing and observing variation in the policy context, economic outcomes, and the connection between them. The key question for policy makers and donors is how they can support, i.e. help to design, finance, and grow such portfolios of projects of diaspora members in their home countries.
Contents Foreword Demetrios G. Papademetriou / Kathleen Newland (MPI) Part I: Talent Abroad and I... more Contents Foreword Demetrios G. Papademetriou / Kathleen Newland (MPI) Part I: Talent Abroad and Institutional Dynamics at Home: Conceptual Issues 1. Introduction and Overview, Yevgeny Kuznetsov (World Bank) 2. Passions Fuelling Interests: Unraveling Motivation of Diaspora Entrepreneurs Jennifer Brinkerhoff (George Washington University) Part II: Global Search for Local Solutions: Role of Diasporas 3. Diaspora Elites Supporting India's Institutional Development: Responding to Big Challenges in Infrastructure and Public Service Provision Devesh Kapur (University of Pennsylvania) 4. Africa's Talent Abroad Supporting Institutional Development in Africa Tanja Faller (African Development Bank) 5. Tacit Skills Formation and Labor Market Incorporation of Mexican Immigrants in the United States Natasha Iskander (New York University, USA) and Nichola Lowe (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA) 6. Diasporas as Part of the Country: Skills Abroad for Reform Dynamics at Home Y...
This chapter provides historical evidence of innovation-led structural changes at the subnational... more This chapter provides historical evidence of innovation-led structural changes at the subnational level in high-middle income economies, with particular emphasis on economies characterized by a significant knowledge base and weak institutions. Although manifestly not the outcome of smart specialization policy, the examples of self-discovery, entrepreneurship, and experimentation discussed here describe real-life smart specialization processes. Lessons are drawn to inform RIS3 policy design and implementation: (1) most success stories occurred spontaneously, with limited policy interventions, and were led by self-discovery of private and public actors; (2) regional development is usually a by-product of the national or global success of private first movers that can initiate exclaves but may fail to become developed regional clusters; (3) “critical mass” of capabilities is a key policy problem at the subnational level; (4) collective action and coordination problems impede the RIS3 p...
T his article was motivated by my first-hand experience with defense industry downsizing in Russi... more T his article was motivated by my first-hand experience with defense industry downsizing in Russia in 1992 through early 1994 and by discussions with Russian defense industry managers. 1 have arrived at four conclusions, each of which somewhat contradicts conventional wisdom: 1. There is a significant heterogeneity in productivity levels and technological levels of capital stock amongdefense enterprises. 2. The entrepreneurial potential of defense enterprise managers is just as diverse as the physical capital stock. Many of them are brilliant Schumpeterian entrepreneurs even under the unfavorable conditions of institutional vacuum and monetary austerity that followed price liberalization in Russia. Others, however, are unable to adjust to the realities of the nascent market and should be replaced. 3. In restructuring ventures, access to capital and inputs takes place not via formal economic institutions but through personal networks, which were traditionally very strong and still ar...
The Challenges of Technology and Economic Catch-up in Emerging Economies, 2021
The chapter extends the familiar Schumpeterian notion of creative destruction to the public-secto... more The chapter extends the familiar Schumpeterian notion of creative destruction to the public-sector domain by asking a practical “how to” question: how policymakers can set priorities assuming that they have neither the panoramic view of the economy nor good capabilities to learn. The key notion is a trial-and-error policy process—with new experimentalist public programs and policies at the center—which shifts attention from one-time choice to incremental and continuous error-detection and correction of policy choices. Central governance procedure of such policy process is diagnostic monitoring which motivates stakeholders to learn by revealing both mistakes and new possibilities for action. Such problem-solving monitoring is contrasted with conventional (accounting) monitoring. Echoing the industry life-cycle literature, a policy life cycle of a new experimentalist program is introduced. A distinction is made between experimental policy process in the managerial sense (medium-term h...
World Bank Publications, 2010
As developing countries embark on the policy agenda of innovation-based growth, they face on acut... more As developing countries embark on the policy agenda of innovation-based growth, they face on acute shortage of competent individual who know the country well, but who are not part of the 'status qua' and there for have no vested interests other then the best possible country outcome. Paradoxically, the search for these individuals often leads to the country's talent abroad its skilled diaspora. The best and brightest, who are crucial for innovation, have often left the country in search of better opportunities. The usual policy focus encourage return of talent to the home country is often neither realistic nor necessary: members of skilled diasporas can just as effectively engage in joint continuous projects with the home country without permanently relocating to it: a phenomenon called 'brain circulation.'
... In order to intensify the research communication within the network we are glad that Yevgeny ... more ... In order to intensify the research communication within the network we are glad that Yevgeny Kuznetzov1 gave us the permission to reproduce his ... and susceptible to change than the The notable exceptions are manuscripts of L. Tayior (1991) and Zhukov and Vorobyov (1991). ...
... These include: Lakshmi Mittal - involved in the iron and steel industry. ... include: Rajat G... more ... These include: Lakshmi Mittal - involved in the iron and steel industry. ... include: Rajat Gupta, Managing Director, McKinsey and Co.; Victor Menezes, Senior President, Citigroup; Rono Dutta, CEO, United Airlines; Vijay Gordia, CEO, Vinmar International Ltd.; Shailesh Mehta, CEO ...