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ABSTRACT: This article examines wages in rural Russia after the first decade of economic transition using data from a nationally representative household survey. The stochastic frontier analysis reveals that Russia's rural labour markets place high value on human capital. The overall level of rural wages, however, is very low, with the median wage 10% below the official subsistence level. The gender pay gap severely depresses women's wages. A woman with the same skills as a man is paid only 47% of the man's wage. Rural workers who receive income from their personal plots accept significantly lower wages. Private firms pay considerably higher wages than state or collectively owned firms, but account only for one fifth of rural workers.
Post Communist Economies 02/2006; 18(3):315-326. · 0.46 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Household income in rural Russia 2000-03 is examined using a nationally representative household survey. Household plots narrow the income gap between urban and rural households and are essential as both a means of subsistence for poor families and a source of extra income for wealthier households. Unemployment lowers household income per adult substantially, especially the lowest income quintile. While young households and families with children are most disadvantaged, pensions keep retirement-age households out of poverty. Better human capital endowments raise household income substantially at all levels of the income distribution.
Applied Econometrics and International Development 01/2006; 6(1).
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ABSTRACT: Based on two rounds of a nationally representative household survey, this paper presents an exploratory study of risk factors and the economics of the decision to smoke by adults in Russia in the second half of the 1990s. With an overall smoking prevalence of 32.2%, smoking is much more prevalent among men (61.4%) than among women (10.3%). The risk of smoking is on the rise in Russia due mainly to the growing incidence of female smoking, especially in major urban centres, where the impact of modern culture and Western tobacco companies is more profound. The low estimated price elasticities of the decision to smoke for men (−0.085) and for women (−0.628) suggest that an excise tax on cigarettes is not an effective means to reduce the prevalence of smoking. The decision to smoke is also found to be very income inelastic. Formal education, occupation, alcohol consumption, and obesity are associated with smoking in a way similar to developed countries. Comparative Economic Studies (2003) 45, 87–103. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ces.8100001
Comparative Economic Studies 01/2003; 45(1):87-103.
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ABSTRACT: A stochastic frontier wage equation is employed to examine labor-market efficiency and estimate workers’ potential wages in Russia after a decade of economic reforms using a nationally representative household survey. Dynamic monopsony underpayment, defined as the differences between the highest wage a worker with given characteristics could earn and the worker's actual wage, is a significant factor lowering real wages. The estimated degree of underpayment differs significantly depending on gender and substantially exceeds the estimates for Western economies. Workers’ potential wages are elastic with respect to the local cost of living. Women's mean potential wage is only 58% of men's.
Economic Systems.
