William Pyle

Russia’s economic transformation

William Pyle’s research focuses on economic institutions in post-socialist countries, most particularly Russia. He is the author of the chapter “Russia’s economic transformation: causes, consequences and challenges” in the volume Understanding Contemporary Russia, edited by Mike Bressler (Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2nd edition, 2018). In recent years, he has held affiliations at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and at the Bank of Finland’s Institute for Economies in Transition (BOFIT). In 2014, he and a BOFIT colleague were awarded the Russian National Prize in Applied Economics for their research on Russian business lobbies.

While in Munich, William Pyle will be collaborating with Christa Hainz and Sarah Reiter on an investigation of home ownership in the post-communist countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Working with original household-level data collected in collaboration with the Austrian National Bank, the three will be exploring the relationship between home ownership, on the one hand, and access to finance and home renovations and improvements, on the other. They will also be seeking to explain the historical factors that explain regional variation in ownership patterns and how ownership is documented legally.

William Pyle is the Frederick Dirks Professor of International Economics at Middlebury College and an affiliate of the College’s programs in International Politics and Economics as well as Russian and East European Studies. William holds a BA in History from Harvard College (magna cum laude), an MA in Russian and East European Studies from Indiana University and a PhD in Economics from Duke University.