An economist who carried price theory into the transition to a market economy
Through the 500 Days programme, he pushed his research on price formation toward a plan for transforming the Soviet economy into a market.
Nikolai Petrakov was a Soviet economist who used mathematical analysis to study price formation and the balancing of costs, output, and incomes in a planned economy. He pursued market mechanisms and price reform, and in 1990 joined Stanislav Shatalin and Grigory Yavlinsky as a co-author of the 500 Days programme. The programme sought to move the Soviet economy toward a market through privatization, price liberalization, and a transfer of authority to the republics, placing Petrakov’s research and policy work at the junction of economic modelling and urgent political choice. He later founded the Institute for Market Problems and led research on market transition and economic policy.
Career Timeline
- 1959Graduated from the Faculty of Economics, Moscow State University
- 1963Earned a Candidate of Economic Sciences degree for research on industrial profitability and pricing
- 1970–1989Professor of economics at Moscow State University
- 1972Earned a Doctor of Economic Sciences degree for research on pricing in a planned economy
- 1984–1990Corresponding member, then full member, of the USSR Academy of Sciences
- 1990Economic aide to the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, then to the President of the USSR
- 1990Co-author of the Shatalin-Yavlinsky 500 Days programme
- 1990–2014Founder and first director of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for Market Problems