Michael S. Bernstam
Research Fellow

Expertise: Economy of the former Soviet Union, transition to markets, general economic demography, economic systems

Michael S. Bernstam, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, is an economic demographer who studies economic systems in their relationship with income, population, financial development, natural resources, the environment, conflict, and other social change.

The focus of his work in the past ten years has been on the causes of economic growth and contraction in postcommunist economies, with special emphasis on Russia.

He is currently at work on From Predation to Prosperity: How to Move from Socialism to Markets (with Alvin Rabushka) which analyzes the causes of Russia's great contraction and proposes policies to set Russia on a path of sustained growth. Several chapters of this book, as well as numerous articles and commentaries on the subject, are posted at www.russiaeconomy.org, a web site created jointly by Bernstam and Rabushka that provides scholarly analysis of Russia's economy.

Bernstam's previous books include Fixing Russia's Banks: A Proposal for Growth, with Alvin Rabushka (Hoover Institution Press, 1998); The Development of Russian Company Towns (Russian Ministry of Finance, 2000); Inter-Enterprise Debt and the Russian Coal Sector, with Thomas E. MaCurdy (Partners in Economic Reform for the USAID, 1996); Subsidies and Employment in the Russian Coal Sector, with Thomas E. MaCurdy (Partners in Economic Reform for the USAID, 1994); and Reform without Shock, with Vladimir Leksin (Supreme Economic Council of Russia, 1992).

Bernstam's other major publications include Resources, Environment, and Population: Present Knowledge, Future Options, with Kingsley Davis (Oxford University Press, 1991); The Wealth of Nations and the Environment (Institute of Economic Affairs, 1991); Population and Resources in a Changing World, with Kingsley Davis (Stanford University Press, 1989); Malthus and the Evolution of the Welfare State, with Peter L. Swan (University of New South Wales, 1989); and Below-Replacement Fertility in Industrial Societies: Causes and Consequences, with Kingsley Davis and Rita Ricardo-Campbell (Cambridge University Press, 1986). He has also authored numerous articles, papers, and book chapters.

Bernstam served as visiting professor of economics at Monash University, Victoria, Australia, in 1989, and adjunct professor in Stanford University's Overseas Studies Program in 1997–99. He has worked at the Hoover Institution since 1981.

During 1991–1995, Bernstam served as economic adviser to the Russian Parliament, the Central Bank of Russia, and the Russian government on several policy projects. As part of this work, he coauthored several studies for the World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development on Russian energy, banking, and housing development. In 2002, he helped the Soros Foundation redesign its programs on economic development in Russia.

He is a regular commentator on the Russian economy and finance for Radio Liberty, Voice of America, and the BBC.