• Economic History and Interdisciplinarity (On the Scientific Seminar at Higher School of Economics)

Abstracts

We investigate the relationship between the key labour market indicators: productivity, real wages, and unemployment rate. The analysis is based on quarterly data for the period Q1 1995 to Q3 2013. The period free of crises (early 1999 to mid-2008) is additionally considered to check the crisis effects. We estimate vector error correction model (VECM). Cointegration was found among the main labour market variables. The model coefficient signs fully corresponded to the economic logic, and their magnitudes were almost identical for both time spans. No significant asymmetry to positive and negative deviations from the long-term trend was revealed at the Russian labour market. The model has allowed to measure contribution of different channels to the wage growth. We find that productivity growth and decline in unemployment had similar impact on the wage change over the period under consideration. Our results explain thus the observed unusual trend of marked increase of the wage share in GDP. Contrary to standard beliefs, cross-country comparisons show neither an increased reaction of wages nor a weak reaction of employment to productivity or output shocks.

JEL: E24, J01.
Keywords: labour market, wage, unemployment rate, labour productivity.

This study considers the influence of structural change on aggregate labour productivity growth of the Russian economy. The term "structural change" refers to labour reallocation both between industries and between formal and informal segments within an industry. Using Russia KLEMS and official Rosstat data we decompose aggregate labour productivity growth into intra-industry (within) and between industry effects with four alternative methods of the shift-share analysis. All methods provide consistent results and demonstrate that total labour reallocation has been growth enhancing though the informality expansion has had a negative effect. As our study suggests, it is caused by growing variation in productivity levels across industries.

JEL: O47, O17.
Keywords: shift-share analysis, informal economy, labour productivity growth, Russian economy, Russia KLEMS.

This paper surveys the literature on public—private sector wage differentials for Russian labor market. We give an overview of the main results and problems of the existing research. The authors unanimously confirm that in Russia private sector workers receive higher wages relative to their public sector counterparts. According to different estimates the "premium" varies between 7 and 40%. A correct evaluation of this "premium" is subject to debate and is a particular case of a more general econometric problem of wage differentials estimation. The main difficulties are related to data limitations, self-selection and omitted variables. Reasons for the existence of a stable private sector "premium" in Russia are not fully investigated.

JEL: J31, J45.
Keywords: public sector, wage differentials, RLMS, Russian Federation.

The loss of country’s socio-economic development stability puts on the agenda the problem of finding solutions contributing to the maintenance of Russian households’ welfare. The authors believe that these solutions lie in the broader area than applying various instruments of monetary support. The most effective solutions are related to the actualization of own resources of households that can act as a safety margin as well as a source of social development. The attempt to evaluate the households’ resource provision and highlight the significance of each resource enabling or creating barriers to the growth of households’ welfare is made in this article. On the basis of received conclusions social policy areas directed at preserving or enhancing the welfare are defined.

JEL: I32.
Keywords: welfare, social recourses, social policy, vertical mobility, social differentiation.

The article provides an overview of current research in the field of sports economics. Sport is an area of special interest for economists due to the increasing economic and political significance of this industry. Many economic puzzles arise in sport, such as market failures, property rights, institutional design. The author demonstrates and analyzes opportunities for economic analysis in sports industry and formulates unsolved problems in this area.

JEL: Z20, Z22, Z28.
Keywords: sports economics, contracts, market failures, contest design.

The paper analyzes Greece debt crisis by means of the Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis, which makes it possible to investigate the country’s endogenous transformation into the financially fragile position. Therefore, we can understand how the economy becomes vulnerable to crises. Using this hypothesis, it has been demonstrated how behavior of both public and private sectors of the Greek economy had generated the debt crisis. In particular, the authors use the sample including 36 Greek companies for the 2001—2014 period and show that the rising share of these firms moved to fragile financial structures. The paper also pays special attention to negative effects of austerity policies in Greece. The austerity doctrine is treated as the leading anti-recessionary mainstream conception.

JEL: B59, E12, E32, E44, E52.
Keywords: financial instability hypothesis, Minsky, post-Keynesian economics, financial fragility, Greece debt crisis, austerity policies.

A dramatic shift in the balance of economic power among advanced and developing countries is demonstrated by comparing GDP of the largest economies. The world economy prospects are also evaluated up to the middle of the current century. Major ways of economic growth models building are considered. Problems of long waves of economic development concept application for forecasting advances in technology and GDP growth per capita have been outlined.

JEL: B3, F6, E32, E37, J1, N10, O11, O47.
Keywords: economic growth, models, forecasting, long cycles, world economy.