Transition = improved revenue performance plus elektrificatsiya? A look at Irkutsk region during the early transition era

Because of the lack of Russian Federation analysis and data availability at the federal level, the focus is on a single region that has been previously thoroughly analyzed with a production function during the Soviet era. Two specific questions can be addressed. First, with the current need to understand whether the bottom of both regional and federal growth 'J-curves' has been reached, what does production function analysis reveal about a region's growth in the early transition era? Second, is the use of electricity consumption as a proxy for output useful in gauging economic recovery? The ability to now include an explicit electricity input allows for an examination of the role of electricity in Russian economic growth and a better understanding of the utility reforms now being contemplated by the Russian government. Finally, production function results are used to compare resource utilization with revenue performance. Section two summarizes the results from Soviet era production function analysis of Irkutsk Oblast. Section three discusses some features of the region during the transition, especially electric power usage. Section four discusses the methodology and data. Section five discusses descriptive and econometric results. Section six concludes.