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Grime and Punishment: Job Insecurity and Wage Arrears in the Russian Federation

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  • Hartmut Lehmann
  • Jonathan Wadsworth
  • Alessandro Acquisti

Abstract

Using information from two complementary household survey datasets, we show that the dominant form of labour market adjustment in the Russian transition process has been the delayed receipt of wages. More than half the workforce is experiencing some form of disruption to their pay. Wage arrears are found across the private, state and budgetary sector. Workers in the metropolitan centre are less affected by delayed and incomplete wage payments than workers in the provinces. There is less evidence that individual characteristics contribute much toward the incidence of wage arrears, but the persistence of arrears is concentrated on a subset of the working population. We show that workers can only exercise the exit option of a job quit from a firm not paying wages in full or on time if the outside labour market is sufficiently dynamic.

Suggested Citation

  • Hartmut Lehmann & Jonathan Wadsworth & Alessandro Acquisti, 1999. "Grime and Punishment: Job Insecurity and Wage Arrears in the Russian Federation," CERT Discussion Papers 9907, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University.
  • Handle: RePEc:hwe:certdp:9907
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • P52 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Studies of Particular Economies
    • J40 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - General

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