Drawing upon theoretical frameworks of energy resource endowment, institutions and economic growth, this research project empirically examined economic performance of hydrocarbons-rich post-Soviet economies with strong states. Sharing institutional characteristics of coordinated market economies, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan are similar in that they fail to grow steadily and reveal problems with the inclusiveness of development.

The principal research question of this project was: Is it resource curse or institutional curse that determines the performance of fossil fuels-rich economies with strong state? To answer this question, the project checked relationships between economic growth and development (EGD) and energy resource (oil and natural gas) endowment, EGD and institutions for a sample of post-Soviet economies. Panel data for 1991-2017 were composed based upon open databases of the World Bank, United Nations Comtrade, World Economic Forum, Natural Resource Governance Institution, Eurasian Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, Transparency International (CPI), as well as statistical portals of the respective countries and other sources (such as state-owned energy companies).