Authors: Alex Knorre, Ruslan Kuchakov and Dmitriy Skougarevskiy
Abstract: We study foreign firm exit from Russia following the 2022 offensive in Ukraine. Using admin- istrative data on the universe of equity ownership in Russia we find that Western-owned firms that exited Russia in 2022 accounted for 1.5%, 3.1%, and 3.6% of capital stock, revenues, and wage bill in 2021, respectively. Exiting firms comprised almost 1/4 of total Western firm output in Russia. In a triple difference design we show that stakeholder activism contributed to firm exit. Inclusion of a Western company on the Yale School of Management list of companies with exposure to Russia increased the probability of its exit by 12.7 p.p. (+106.7% in relation to pre-conflict exit rate).
Abstract: We study foreign firm exit from Russia following the 2022 offensive in Ukraine. Using admin- istrative data on the universe of equity ownership in Russia we find that Western-owned firms that exited Russia in 2022 accounted for 1.5%, 3.1%, and 3.6% of capital stock, revenues, and wage bill in 2021, respectively. Exiting firms comprised almost 1/4 of total Western firm output in Russia. In a triple difference design we show that stakeholder activism contributed to firm exit. Inclusion of a Western company on the Yale School of Management list of companies with exposure to Russia increased the probability of its exit by 12.7 p.p. (+106.7% in relation to pre-conflict exit rate).