Unskilled labor is the abundant resource in many developing countries, especially at an early stage of their development. Yet, even as at given technologies labor markets have not cleared, neo-classical economists have rejected the notion of an institutional or bargaining wage not based on...

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Russia experienced a series of economic shocks, resulting in large decreases in output but limited change in employment. Using information contained in a nationally representative longitudinal survey of Russian citizens, this...

This paper analyzes the economic foundations of a non-democratic political regime, where the ruling bureaucracy captures rents through collective control over state property and job assignment. The model developed here yields the equilibrium in the 'political labor market,' where the ruling...