War, Sanctions, and Business Strategy: European Firms in Russia

Talk by Laura Solanko (The Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT)) as part of the Research Seminar Series of the IOS Economics Department.

Since the imposition increasingly tight economic sanctions on Russian entities, a large body of literature has focused on the effects of trade restrictions on trade flows, and on the sanctions’ effects on Russian firms. However, surprisingly little is still known on the effects of the sanctions and the increase in Russia-related geopolitical tensions on the performance of large European companies. Our study strives to fill in this gap by examining large European companies that had direct presence in the Russian market prior to February 2022. Using data on listed European companies spanning the period of 2010-2024 we examine how the performance of firms with direct exposure to the Russian market differed before and after the two major shocks of 2014 and 2022.