Scott Gehlbach is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is also a research associate of the Centre for Economic and Financial Research in Moscow, where he spent the 2007–8 academic year as a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellow, and is a recent recipient of a Social Science Research Council Eurasia Program Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. His work has appeared in numerous journals, including the American Journal of Political Science, the Quarterly Journal of Political Science, Economics and Politics, and Rationality and Society. His dissertation on the political economy of taxation in postcommunist states won the Mancur Olson Award for the best dissertation in the field of political economy. Professor Gehlbach received his PhD in political science and economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

'Why do different postcommunist governments pursue differing investment strategies? Gehlbach shows that game theory and econometrics, when combined with expert area knowledge, produces an interesting answer, namely, that given some sets of conditions, governments invest inefficiently so as to maximize their tax revenue.' Nathaniel Beck, New York University

• 1. Taxes, representation, and economic development in the Russian heartland; 2. The creation of tax systems; 3. The logic of representation through taxation; 4. Patterns of collective-goods provision; 5. Revenue traps; 6. Conclusions.

Scott Gehlbach is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is also a research associate of the Centre for Economic and Financial Research in Moscow, where he spent the 2007–8 academic year as a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellow, and is a recent recipient of a Social Science Research Council Eurasia Program Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. His work has appeared in numerous journals, including the American Journal of Political Science, the Quarterly Journal of Political Science, Economics and Politics, and Rationality and Society. His dissertation on the political economy of taxation in postcommunist states won the Mancur Olson Award for the best dissertation in the field of political economy. Professor Gehlbach received his PhD in political science and economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

'Why do different postcommunist governments pursue differing investment strategies? Gehlbach shows that game theory and econometrics, when combined with expert area knowledge, produces an interesting answer, namely, that given some sets of conditions, governments invest inefficiently so as to maximize their tax revenue.' Nathaniel Beck, New York University

• 1. Taxes, representation, and economic development in the Russian heartland; 2. The creation of tax systems; 3. The logic of representation through taxation; 4. Patterns of collective-goods provision; 5. Revenue traps; 6. Conclusions.

Scott Gehlbach is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is also a research associate of the Centre for Economic and Financial Research in Moscow, where he spent the 2007–8 academic year as a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellow, and is a recent recipient of a Social Science Research Council Eurasia Program Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. His work has appeared in numerous journals, including the American Journal of Political Science, the Quarterly Journal of Political Science, Economics and Politics, and Rationality and Society. His dissertation on the political economy of taxation in postcommunist states won the Mancur Olson Award for the best dissertation in the field of political economy. Professor Gehlbach received his PhD in political science and economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

'Why do different postcommunist governments pursue differing investment strategies? Gehlbach shows that game theory and econometrics, when combined with expert area knowledge, produces an interesting answer, namely, that given some sets of conditions, governments invest inefficiently so as to maximize their tax revenue.' Nathaniel Beck, New York University

• 1. Taxes, representation, and economic development in the Russian heartland; 2. The creation of tax systems; 3. The logic of representation through taxation; 4. Patterns of collective-goods provision; 5. Revenue traps; 6. Conclusions.