I am a fifth-year PhD student at the Aix-Marseille School of Economics. I am on the 2026-2027 academic job market.

I work on political economy, development and economic history, using applied micro methods and new archival data to study how elites affect economic growth.

You can find my CV here and contact me at mariya[dot]sakharova[at]univ-amu[dot]fr

Research

Working Papers

Job Market Paper: Collusion, Connection and Capture: The Political Economy of Late Tsarist Industrialization (New version coming October 2026)

Different social classes have different tools at their disposal, such as political influence and collusion, which in turn influence the market structure of an economy. While the effects of political influence have been studied, the prevalence and associated outcomes of collusion are unclear, since collusion is usually illegal and thus difficult to measure. I collect a novel dataset on collusion in Late Tsarist Russia and use classic and staggered differences-in-differences to study the relationship between elites, foreign entities, merchants and collusion, and how collusion may affect industrialization. Industries with elite presence are not necessarily more collusive. However, when there is a contraction in demand these industries see an increase in collusion, especially when they face foreign competition. Colluding firms within the metals sector see their machine power increase, indicating collusion gave them more financial leeway to mechanize in an environment with underdeveloped financial markets - implying that in such a setting collusion was beneficial for industrialization.

Presented at: LSE Graduate Economic History Seminar, WEast Dublin Workshop 2024, LSE Seminar in Political Economy and Economic History, AMSE PhD Seminar, ENS Lyon Economic History Workshop, EHS 2025 (Strathclyde), EHA Philadelphia, Santa Clara University, Northwestern Economic History Workshop, CalTech Economic History Seminar, PSE Economic History Seminar, Yale Economic History Lunch, European Development in a Historical Perspective (Harvard), Summer Workshop in the Economic History and Historical Political Economy of Eurasia

Firm Formation in Tsarist Russian Empire: The Effect of the Polish Revolt (Available upon request)

My study takes advantage of a natural experiment related to the reallocation of land due to the serf emancipation in the Tsarist Russian Empire. In 1863 the Polish nobility revolted against the Tsar in the Western part of the empire. The revolt failed, and in retaliation the Tsarist government revised the terms of the emancipation by taking more land from the Polish nobility and reallocating the land towards the peasantry in the affected regions. Through spatial analysis and using detailed data on corporate charters and manufacturing censuses, I document a divergence in firm formation, firm characteristics and founder characteristics between the regions where there was greater reallocation from the gentry to the peasantry.

Presented at: AMSE PhD Seminar, WEAI 2023, EHES 2023 (WU Vienna), Middlebury, EHS 2024 (Northumbria), Baltic Connections 2024 (Jyväskylä), LAGV 2024 (Aix-Marseille), and ICDE 2024 (Aix-Marseille)

Work in Progress

Victory over Vodka? The Consequences of the Russian Empire’s Spirits Monopoly with Tom Raster (LSE)

Alcohol can impose high economic and social costs, yet how to regulate it effectively is subject to an ongoing debate in the face of bootlegging as well as other illegal procurement and consumption practices. This paper studies the impact of the Russian Empire's state alcohol monopoly (1895–1914) on public health, crime, productivity, and state revenues. Exploiting the staggered introduction of the monopoly that replaced excise taxes, we document positive short-term effects on health, while state revenues decreased. In the medium-term the effects disappear as the population adapts to the policy - such as through bootlegging. These findings illustrate the dilemma faced by weak states that often rely heavily on revenues from harmful substances.

Presented at: AMSE PhD Seminar, Northwestern Economic History Workshop, PSE Applied Economics Lunch

Disentangling the Relationship between Resources and Institutions using Late Tsarist Agriculture with Steven Nafziger (Williams)

Teaching

Aix Marseille University - Teaching Assistant

Mathematics 2 : First year undergraduate, second semester course on math for the economics track. Covered sequences, convergence and linear algebra. (Taught in French)

Individual Behavior : Introduction to microeconomics and causal identification to first year undegraduates in the Mathematics and Computer Science applied to Human and Social Sciences degree. (Taught in French)

General Public

Blog Posts

How Elites Shaped Tsarist Russia’s Industrial Age in LSE Economic History Blog (January 2025)

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