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Tenures That Shook the World: Worker Turnover in Russia, Poland, and Britain

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  • Lehmann, Hartmut
  • Wadsworth, Jonathan

Abstract

We study worker turnover to investigate to what extent the length of time a worker has been employed by a firm shapes the turnover process in a transition economy. Using survey data, we compare the pattern of turnover with a Western economy, Britain. We show that tenure-turnover rates are higher in Russia and lower in Poland than in Britain. The characteristics of workers hired in the state and private sectors do not look very different. State and private sector firms in Poland offer the same wages to new recruits, but new private sector jobs in Russia appear to offer wage premia relative to new state jobs. We argue that these observations are consistent with a framework in which the value of seniority in jobs begun under the old order may be small and the value of a continued job match unsure, offset, in Poland at least, by insider resistance to layoffs.
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  • Lehmann, Hartmut & Wadsworth, Jonathan, 2000. "Tenures That Shook the World: Worker Turnover in Russia, Poland, and Britain," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 639-664, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:28:y:2000:i:4:p:639-664
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    1. Louise Grogan & Gerard J. van den Berg, 2001. "The duration of unemployment in Russia," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 14(3), pages 549-568.
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    9. J. Konings & H. Lehmann & M.E. Schaffer, 1996. "Job Creation and Job Destruction in a Transition Economy: Ownership, Firm Size," CERT Discussion Papers 9611, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University.
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    15. Lehmann, Hartmut & Schaffer, Mark E, 1995. "Productivity, Employment and Labor Demand in Polish Industry in the 1980s: Some Preliminary Results from Enterprise-Level Data," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 1-27.
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    21. Alessandro Acquisti & Hartmut Lehmann, 2000. "Job Creation and Job Destruction in the Russian Federation," Trinity Economics Papers 20001, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • P20 - Economic Systems - - Socialist Systems and Transition Economies - - - General

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