Dr Kuat Akizhanov
Small Group Project 2022-23
Income inequalities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia: finance, rent and wealth in the age of neoliberal capitalism
With Balihar Sanghera & Elmira Satybaldieva & Ilya Matveev
The project’s main purpose is to develop an understanding of the impact of financialisation and rent extraction (rent-seeking activities or rentierism) on economic inequality. The distributional patterns and their relations to neoliberalisation in three former Soviet countries of Eurasia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia) between 2000 and 2020 will be analysed and compared. This research addresses the question whether financialisation and rentierism facilitate uneven capital accumulation, and generate conditions that increase income and wealth disparities.
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Biography
Dr. Kuat B. Akizhanov is a heterodox scholar and academic with extensive public policy and governmental service experience. In 2015-2021, he was a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences of the University of Bath (UK) where he studied at the PhD Research Programme in Global Political Economy: Transformations and Policy Analysis (2015-2019). During 2019-2020, Dr. Akizhanov was a Teaching Fellow in Public Policy and Management in International Development Department, School of Government, University of Birmingham (UK).
Kuat joined academia in 2015 after serving for 15 years in different governmental agencies including ministries of justice, finance, the Kazakh President’s office and as a head of a state insurance company. While at the University of Bath, Kuat worked as a Teaching Assistant and was qualified as an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). He is also a CERGE-EI Foundation Teaching Fellow and a Bolashak (twice) and Chevining scholarships recipient. Kuat is a contributor to the think-tank center at spik.kz
Kuat joined academia in 2015 after serving for 15 years in different governmental agencies including ministries of justice, finance, the Kazakh President’s office and as a head of a state insurance company. While at the University of Bath, Kuat worked as a Teaching Assistant and was qualified as an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). He is also a CERGE-EI Foundation Teaching Fellow and a Bolashak (twice) and Chevining scholarships recipient. Kuat is a contributor to the think-tank center at spik.kz
Biographical details correct as of 19.04.26