How did nationalization affect Russia's economy?

Nationalization and its consequences have attracted new interest in the recent financial crisis. We study the

effects of nationalization on company performance using a sample of Russian firms. The Russian government has

increased its role as an owner in several sectors of the economy in the 2000’s. We have assembled a comprehensive

data set of nationalization transactions in Russia for the period from 2004 to 2008. Operating performance is

measured relative to a close match of a non-nationalized firm that is found using propensity score matching. Overall,

the empirical results show no significant effect of the fact of nationalization on performance. There is however, an

increase in leverage over the first two years after nationalization. Subsequent research will shed more light on the

changes in corporate governance going along with nationalization that can have intermediating effects on

performance. Explanation: