The paper looks at the effects of employment concentration on resource allocation with a particular focus on one-company towns in Russia defined as towns where a single company accounts for a significant share of total employment of the locality. Empirical analysis of firms' production functions...

The paper uses a unique survey of recruitment firms to look at how Russian firms perceive the supply of skills in the labour market and how well those skills match to their demand for labour. Firms invest significant amounts of time in search to fill vacancies and search time is unambiguously...

This paper uses two large multi-country datasets on educational scores – PISA and TIMSS – to examine the performance of Russia in comparative light as well as the factors associated with differences in educational outcomes in Russia. Despite the perception of a positive educational legacy,...

The contraction in net employment has been smaller in Russia than in Eastern Europe, but Russian unemployment has been increasing and will probably increase further.Registered unemployment in Russia is now 2 percent; surveys indicate a true rate of between 5 and 6 percent. Until now, flows in...

This paper analyzes the causes and consequences of non-monetary transactions in Russia, drawing on a large enterprise survey. We show that barter and offsets are linked to liquidity problems at the level of the firm and to arrears in particular. We find evidence that the state has channeled...

We look at the differences in regional unemployment rates in six major transition countries and their persistence over time. We analyse the role various adjustment mechanisms play. While movement out of the labour force seems to be one consequence in many regions with high relative unemployment,...

Transition has involved major job destruction and creation. This paper examines the skill content of these changes using a detailed three country firm survey. It shows that transition has exerted a strong bias against unskilled labour who have lost employment disproportionately. Moreover, job...

This paper analyses the incidence and growth of non-monetary transactions - barter, veksels, debt offsets, tax offsets and other monetary surrogates - in Russia. The empirical backbone of the paper is a survey of 350 - predominantly industrial - firms, carried out in October and November 1998....

Soviet era firms provided generous social benefits, including health and child care. Despite recent cuts, firm survey data show that benefits have remained a majorcomponent of total compensation. With benefits largely firm- specific and firms dominated by insiders, continuing attachment of...

The paper uses a large household dataset -- the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring survey -- to measure inequality and poverty in Russia since the start of transition in 1992. What emerges is that inequality had already emerged by 1992 and has grown subsequently. By 1996 the Gini for Russia was...