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on Confederation of Independent States |
| By: | Lehmann, Hartmut (University of Bologna); Muravyev, Alexander (IZA); Razzolini, Tiziano (University of Siena); Zaiceva, Anzelika (IZA and University of Bologna) |
| Abstract: | This paper is the first to analyze the costs of job loss in Russia, using unique new data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey over the years 2003-2008, including a special supplement on displacement that was initiated by us. We employ fixed effects regression models and propensity score matching techniques in order to establish the causal effect of displacement for displaced individuals. The paper is innovative insofar as we investigate as relevant outcomes fringe and in-kind benefits and the propensity to have an informal employment relationship in addition to monthly earnings, hourly wages, employment and hours worked, which are traditionally analyzed. We find that, compared to the control group of non-displaced workers (i.e. stayers and quitters), displaced individuals face a significant income loss following displacement, which is mainly due to the reduction in employment and hours worked. This effect is robust to the definition of displacement. The losses seem to be more pronounced and are especially large for older workers with labor market experience and human capital acquired in Soviet times and for workers with low education. Workers displaced from state firms experience particularly large relative losses in the short run, while such losses for workers laid off from private firms are more persistent. Turning to the additional labor market outcomes, there is a loss in terms of the number of fringe and in-kind benefits for reemployed individuals but not in terms of their value. There is also some evidence of an increased probability of working in informal jobs if displaced. These results point towards the importance of both firm-specific human capital and of obsolete skills obtained under the centrally planned economy as well as to a wider occurrence of job insecurity among displaced workers. |
| Keywords: | costs of job loss, worker displacement, propensity score matching, Russia |
| JEL: | J64 J65 P50 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5415&r=cis |
| By: | Libman, Alexander; Vinokurov, Evgeny |
| Abstract: | While the regional economic integration encompassing the former Soviet Union (FSU) transpires to be inefficient, there appears to be a stronger interest in regionalism in smaller groups of more homogenous and geographically connected countries of the region, specifically, Central Asia. Using a new dataset, we find that although the economic links between the Central Asian countries are more pronounced than between that of the CIS in several key areas, this advantage has been disappearing fast over the last decade. In addition, the trend of economic integration of Central Asia strongly correlates to that of the CIS in general. Currently Central Asia should be treated as a sub-region of the post-Soviet world rather than a definite integration region.On the other hand, however, we find that Kazakhstan emerges as a new centre for regional integration, which can bear some potential for regionalism in Central Asia, and that there is an increasing trend towards greater economic interconnections with China in Central Asia. -- |
| Keywords: | regionalisation,economic integration,post-Soviet space,Central Asia |
| JEL: | F13 F15 P27 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fsfmwp:155&r=cis |
| By: | Jens K. Perret (European Institute for International Economic Relations at the University of Wuppertal) |
| Abstract: | Regions differ from each other not only in their economic structure but concerning the impact they have on their neighbors. In the present study interregional spillover activities are analyzed for the regions of the Russian Federation. Instead of knowledge spillovers, more general growth spillovers are accounted for. The time period observed in this study is 1994 to 2008, therefore a large part of the Russian transition period. Using the local Moran's I statistic as a measure of regional spillover activity reveals that only limited spillover activity is present. Additionally, to account for the range of these spillovers, an approach introduced by Bottazzi and Peri (2003) is implemented. It is shown that the spillovers' reach is very limited if present at all. |
| Keywords: | Russian Federation, Spillovers, Spatial Economectrics, Clustering |
| JEL: | R11 R15 |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwu:schdps:sdp11001&r=cis |
| By: | Minzyuk, Larysa |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a model to investigate the private enforcement of non-monetary inter-firm payments in Russia during the 1990s. Since acceptability of means of payment can have a self-reinforcing nature, the dominance of non-monetary means of payment over money in Russia might have been a result of the driving forces of the demonetiziation equilibrium. We propose a very simple search model to explore acceptability of means of payment different from legal tender - fiat money, commodity money, and trade credit. In each case, we show that monetization through the proposed means of payment is always a possible trade pattern. |
| Keywords: | privately created means of payment; fiat money; commodity money; reputations; Russia |
| JEL: | D83 E00 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28167&r=cis |
| By: | Dieckhoener, Caroline (Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln) |
| Abstract: | Due to the increasing European import dependency, significant additional natural gas volumes will be required. In addition to the Nord Stream pipeline, the Nabucco and South Stream pipeline are projects planned for the next decade to provide further gas supplies to the European market. <p> As one of the European Union’s energy policies’ foci is security of supply, the question can be raised if and how these projects contribute to this objective not only in terms of diversification but also in case of supply disruptions such as occurred in 2009 during the Russia-Ukraine gas crisis. <p> This paper discusses the impact of these two major gas import pipeline projects on the South-Eastern Europe gas supply and analyzes their effects on gas flows and marginal cost prices in general and in case of gas supply disruptions via Ukraine in a model-based analysis with the European natural gas infrastructure and dispatch model TIGER. |
| Keywords: | Natural gas; security of supply; Nabucco; South Stream; Europe; linear-optimization; transport infrastructure |
| JEL: | C61 L95 Q34 Q41 |
| Date: | 2010–12–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:ewikln:2010_007&r=cis |
| By: | Libman, Alexander |
| Abstract: | The absence or the presence of the resource curse is often explained by the specifics of political and institutional factors. The aim of this paper is to study this effect looking separately at economic and political institutions and at their interaction. Unlike most empirical papers in the literature, this paper considers the intra-national variation of institutional environment and access to political decision-making, using a dataset of the Russian regions. It shows that subnational variation of the quality of institutions indeed matters for the effects of resources. Economic institutions follow the traditional 'resource curse' results: resources have a negative impact on growth if the quality of institutions is low. On the other hand, increasing level of democracy has negative consequences for regions with substantial resources. Finally, this paper studies the differentiation between the resource-extracting regions and regions, exporting, but not extracting resources, in terms of the conditional resource curse. -- |
| Keywords: | subnational variation,conditional resource curse,democracy,economic institutions,transition economies |
| JEL: | O13 P28 Q48 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fsfmwp:154&r=cis |
| By: | Dabalen, Andrew; Paul, Saumik |
| Abstract: | Using Life in Transition Survey data for 27 transition countries, the findings of this paper suggest that higher life satisfaction is correlated with lesser experience of unpleasant events such as labor market shock or economic distress, mostly in the recent past. Social capital such as trust, participation in civic groups, and financial stability lead to higher satisfaction, whereas lower relative position to a reference group leaves one with lower life satisfaction. The paper also finds substantial regional variation in life satisfaction between European, Balkan, and lower and middle-income Commonwealth of Independent States. Finally, after controlling for various events that took place during the interview and the nature of refusal of the respondents across countries, the authors show that reported life satisfaction is lower if the emotional state is negative during the interview. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Disease Control&Prevention,Inequality,Labor Policies,Markets and Market Access |
| Date: | 2011–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5526&r=cis |
| By: | Vladimir Popov (New Economic School, Moscow) |
| Abstract: | The highest rates of growth of labor productivity in the Soviet Union were observed not in the 1930s (3% annually), but in the 1950s (6%). The TFP growth rates by decades increased from 0.6% annually in the 1930s to 2.8% in the 1950s and then fell monotonously becoming negative in the 1980s. The decade of 1950s was thus the “golden period” of Soviet economic growth. The patterns of Soviet growth of the 1950s in terms of growth accounting were very similar to the Japanese growth of the 1950s-70s and to Korean and Taiwanese growth in the 1960-80s – fast increases in labor productivity counterweighted the decline in capital productivity, so that the TFP increased markedly. However, high Soviet economic growth lasted only for a decade, whereas in East Asia it continued for three to four decades, propelling Japan, South Korea and Taiwan into the ranks of developed countries. This paper offers an explanation for the inverted U-shaped trajectory of labor productivity and TFP in centrally planned economies (CPEs). It is argued that CPEs under-invested into the replacement of the retiring elements of the fixed capital stock and over-invested into the expansion of production capacities. The task of renovating physical capital contradicted the short-run goal of fulfilling plan targets, and therefore Soviet planners preferred to invest in new capacities instead of upgrading the old ones. Hence, after the massive investment of the 1930s in the USSR, the highest productivity was achieved after the period equal to the average service life of fixed capital stock (about 20 years) – before there emerged a need for the massive investment into replacing retirement. Afterwards, the capital stock started to age rapidly reducing sharply capital productivity and lowering labor productivity and TFP growth rates. |
| Date: | 2010–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfr:cefirw:w0152&r=cis |