In post-Soviet Russia and other post-Communist states, neoliberal reforms based on the Washington Consensus resulted in a surge in excess mortalityPrivatisation 'raised death rate'. BBC, 15 January 2009. Retrieved 24 November 2018. and decreasing life expectancy, along with rising economic inequality, corruption, and poverty. Isabella Weber of the University of Massachusetts said: "As a result of shock therapy, Russia experienced a rise in mortality beyond that of any previous peacetime experiences of an industrialized country." The Gini ratio increased by an average of 9 points for all post-Communist states. The average post-Communist state had returned to 1989 levels of per-capita GDP by 2005, although some are still far behind that. In Russia, the average real income for 99 percent of people was lower in 2015 than in 1991. According to William Easterly, successful market economies rest on a framework of law, regulation, and established practice, which cannot be instantaneously created in a society that was formerly authoritarian, heavily centralised, and subject to state ownership of assets.Easterly, William: The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (Penguin, 2006) German historian Philipp Ther asserted that the imposition of shock therapy had little to do with future economic growth.
