How Effective are Western Sanctions with Professor Seth Benzell

As one of the worlds most televised conflict rages on in Ukraine, western countries, not directly involved, look to utilize a weapon that is forged by economists..

The sanctions imposed on Russia are some of the largest and far-reaching the world has ever seen.. with western countries and international corporations completely cutting ties with the once major emerging economy.. But is this economic weapon working?

Thanks to the pandemic, Sanctions can exacerbate the issues that already trouble the global supply chains, ultimately contributing to inflation…

Here at Things Have Changed, we’ve sat down with our favorite economist, Professor Seth Benzell, who has done some research on assessing how effective western sanctions would be on the Russian economy. One important note is that Seth worked on this with a team of Russian economists at the Gaidar institute, a major center of economic research and training in Russia. On this first episode, we talked about why would sanctions be prescribed and how exactly this would play out in the Russian economy.

For our next episode, we chat more about some ideas that Seth has about where the sanctions should be targeted! To read about it today, check out the article he posted on Warontherocks.com titled “To really hurt Russia’s economy, Target Investment and Human Capital, not gas”.

Helpful Links:

• Western Sanctions are Nothing like the World has Seen
• Western Businesses Pulling Out
• How is the Russian Economy Doing?
• Anonymous Tipsters and Russian Intelligence
• When Central Banks Face Sanctions
• How New Sanctions Could Cripple Russias Economy
• Water-shed Moment in Global Economic History

‍