Publications

The purpose of the article is to present an analytical system that allows users to process data necessary for an industrial risk analysis and management, to monitor the level of industrial safety in a given site, and to fulfil essential tasks within the field of occupational safety. This system’s implementation will make the industrial safety management at industrial sites more effective. Multifactorial, probabilistic, determined models of accidents’ hazard and severity indexes are integrated into the computing core of the Information and Analytical System. Then, statistical methods determine the risk assessment of occupational injuries and diseases. The Information and Analytical System for Hazard Level Assessment and Forecasting Risk of Emergencies in the Republic of Kazakhstan allows users to work efficiently with large volumes of information and form a united analytical electronic report about the state of industrial safety. The main objective of the monitoring system is to conduct a comprehensive analysis and assessment of the state of accidents, traumas and occupational sickness rates at industrial sites, the results being classified by the degree of hazard and insalubrity of manufacture. The introduction of the computer monitoring system in the specialized services of the Emergency Management Committee and the Ministry of Investment and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and at industrial enterprises throughout the country, will allow users to analyse the state of the industrial and occupational safety constantly and objectively; as a consequence, the implementation will go a long way towards comprehensively approaching the task of increasing safety levels at industrial sites.

This paper examines profitability as a factor in the turnover of poorly-performing executives in Russian banks, and how this acts as a mechanism of good corporate governance. It is intended to identify and measure the relative effects of different determinants on executive turnover, and thus highlight the practical sets of circumstances where turnover is most likely. A relatively unique perspective on the study of corporate governance, we intend to demonstrate an aspect of corporate accountability for commercial performance and shed light on high-level manifestations of reactive management practices.

In order to construct the most realistic and robust analysis, we will take into account the idiosyncracies of the companies and individuals involved in this process, and also consider the influence of external economic and social developments where appropriate. The empirical data in this research consists of 3251 observations concerning members of the executive boards of the 50 largest Russian banks from 2005 till 2014. Contemporary accounting data and other financial and economic indicators for these companies is weighed alongside personal information about the banks executives. Descriptive statistics and econometric approaches are utilised in order to parse the provided data and construct a comprehensive explanatory model. Our interpretative process includes the application of probit regressions and OLS panel regressions with fixed effects.

The results of this evaluation may be summarised as follows. We found out that a decrease in return on equity (ROE) and a decrease in return on assets (ROA) leads to a higher probability of executive turnover. Changes in the EBITDA to total assets ratio did not correlate with executive turnover probability. State-controlled banks showed a higher executive turnover rate. A greater turnover rate during pre-crisis 2006-2007 may have been caused by banks’ demand for new executives, in their ambition to attain extensive growth. A higher turnover rate in 2014 could have been inspired by the economic sanctions again Russia, or influenced by a recent policy of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation aiming at a “clearance” of the banking system. Finally, it was demonstrated that personal characteristics of the members of the executive boards did not have a significant influence on executive turnover probability.

This study contributes to the limited literature in the area by analysing the determinants of turnover of members of the executive boards of banks depending on the profitability of banks and other characteristics. This is the first study of this kind, based on extensive Russian data which allows for the appraisal of the mechanisms of corporate governance. While a primary limitation of this study is that only large banks were included in the sample, the very presentation of these conclusions carries significant weight in terms of defining methodological parameters for future research. This area is ripe for further investigation. For example, it is immediately apparent that the results may be very different for small or medium-sized banks, let alone other kinds of financial and commercial institutions.

This paper examines the impact of the 34% increase in pensions in Russia at the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 on the labor market participation of pensioners. Several particular features of the pension system in Russia allow us to estimate the net effect of income from such a reform. For evaluation, we used a method combining difference-in-difference and regression discontinuity methods. The results showed that real pension growth by a third reduced labor force participation rate by 6–7.1% for men and by 6–6.4% for women. The heterogeneity of the impact of this reform was also investigated. Estimates showed that the effect was lower for more educated people or those living in villages and was completely absent among those who rated their health as poor or very bad.

This paper analyses the determinants and consequences of horizontal job-education mismatches, an increasingly relevant topic in debates about education and labour markets. This issue reflects the articulation of educational fields and occupations in the labour market. We evaluate the determinants of job-education mismatches and their impact on salaries of university graduates using comprehensive and representative national data for Russia. The study is based in graduates’ assessment and statistical analyses. We find that one-third of graduates in Russia work in a job that is not related to their field of study. Moreover, graduates from fields that either generate more general human capital (social sciences, business, law, services) or where low pay is common (agriculture) are more likely to be in that situation. On the contrary, graduates from fields that generate specific human capital (e.g.: medicine) are considerably more likely to be matched. We find that mismatches negatively affect the earnings of university graduates and the higher the degree of mismatch, the higher the penalty for the mismatch. The study depicts that mismatch is penalized in the majority of fields except for low-paid ones (e.g.: agriculture).

This paper analyses the impact of academic achievement on future salaries by looking into the grade point average (GPA)-earnings relationship for graduates of a leading Russian university. The study is based on pooled cross-sectional graduate survey data for 2014–2015. The issue of how student academic achievement impacts future labour market rewards is analysed through academic, demographic and labour market factors. We found that there is a significant positive impact of GPA on salaries of BA graduates (9–12% wage premium for an additional GPA point) and an insignificant or negative impact for MA programmes graduates. The study depicts that this negative effect can be partially explained by employment sector-specific variables. Among the main factors which positively affect earnings of graduates is work experience. Graduates who combined study and work achieve a 30% wage premium. However, there is no evidence that combining study and work affects student academic achievement, even for those who combined studies with full-time job. Despite the higher GPA of female students, male graduates’ earnings are 18% higher. Gender wage differences can be explained by gender distribution by the sector of employment: the over-representation of women in the low-paid education and science sectors and their under-representation in entrepreneurship and corporate sector.

Non-renewable fixed-term contracts are becoming more used instead of the traditional Russian model of open-ended employment. The authors examine the influence of institutional and organizational factors on the use of fixed-term contracts in Russia with data from a Sur-vey covering 3313 enterprises for the years 2009 to 2011. Probit and Tobit regressions are used to test several hypotheses about the use of fixed-term contracts derived from the litera-ture. The results indicate that state-owned and unionized enterprises are more likely to use fixed-term contracts; and a high level of perceived dismissal protection for permanent work-ers is positively associated with fixed-term contracts use. The incidence and intensity of fixed-term contracts are lower at enterprises with flexible wages. A significant impact of or-ganizational factors is confirmed for fixed-term contracts. Enterprises use less fixed-term contracts, if they have workers with tenure from 5 to 10 years and high job complexity.

This paper analyzes the impact of the recent retirement age increase in the Russian Federation on the level of absolute income poverty of the population in the period 2018–2028. The main research method is microsimulation analysis. The results of the work show that the level of absolute income poverty of the population of the Russian Federation is almost neutral to the retirement age increase. However, the poverty rate of pre-pensioners as a result of raising the retirement age may slightly increase. The magnitude of the effect varies depending on the education of pre-pensioners.

Though foreign language is widely accepted as an important form of human capital and a factor of economic growth, the labour market outcomes for foreign language skills in developing economies remain understudied. This research explores the returns to different levels of foreign language skills in the Russian labour market and tries do disentangle the differences in return associated with job characteristics.

Based on a representative Russian survey data (RLMS-HSE) for 2008-2017, this study adopts several Mincer type models, adding controls for job characteristics, which are estimated using Ordinary Least Squares technique. By providing separate estimates for various professional groups, this research addresses the heterogeneity of returns which are associated with job characteristics.

The results indicate positive wage premium for foreign language skills in Russia which approximately equals to 9% when controlling for job-related characteristics. Moreover, wage premium for advanced level of knowledge reaches 24%. However, there is considerable heterogeneity in the economic returns across age groups, levels of education, and occupations. The highest return to foreign language skills is obtained by managers and results to be 13%. For elementary occupations the estimate appears to be insignificant which proves that return to foreign language exists only for a limited number of specific jobs

Cultural employment in Russia: labor conditions and leisure facilities

Low level of physical activity among working people is a common problem in many countries including Russia. Despite the increase in recent years in the share of people who are physically active, the level of physical inactivity of Russian workers is still significant, which reduces the effectiveness of resources aimed at improving the health of the Russian population. Studying the changes in the level of physical activity of the working Russian citizens and reviewing its most common types, the authors determine the factors encouraging physical activities and sports. The article identifies the distinguishing features of physical activity among Russian workers, the analysis of the determinants of physical activity, and factors putting obstacles in the way of sport participation. A comprehensive analysis of correlates of physical activity was conducted based on public opinion surveys commissioned by the HSE and carried out by Levada Analytical Center in 2011 and 2017 years. The sample includes employed respondents, both males and females (females aged 25 to 55 years and males aged 25 to 60 years).

For decades economic literature considered intellect to be the main determinant of individual results in the labor market. While there has been signifi cant research on the traditional human capital as the main determinant of labour market results, there is huge heterogeneity across individual wages on the labour market which remains unexplained. Noncognitive characteristics represent a relatively stable way of thinking, feeling and behaving in certain situations, which appears to provide an explanation for these diff erences. This is the first study dedicated to the link between noncognitive skills and economic outcomes conducted on extensive Russian data. Using RLMS – HSE data 2016–2017, returns to the Big Five taxonomy of personality traits are estimated with an extended Mincer-type model. The results are in line with previous research on the topic and indicate the existence of a strong link between noncognitive skills, employment and wages for all socio-demographic and professional groups. However, there is considerable heterogeneity in the economic returns across these groups. Also, the measured eff ect of personality traits is comparable to the eff ect from the traditional human capital components.   

The article presents the results of the analysis of the impact of changes in the pension legislation adopted in October 2018 on the main parameters of the mandatory pension insurance system. It is shown that without raising the retirement age and maintaining the current structure of the insurance pension system until 2050, it would be possible to ensure the annual indexation of pensions in terms of inflation even with minimal economic growth. However, to maintain the ratio of the average pension to the average wage at the current level, raising the retirement age is only one of the necessary measures to stabilize the situation in the period up to 2028. The paper presents the impact of reducing informal employment, increasing the requirements for the length of insurance tenure and increasing the minimum number of individual pension points on the replacement rate. The estimates of tax rates and budget transfer amounts at which it is possible to ensure the replacement rate at the current level (33%) or increase it to 40% are given in for the period up to 2050.

In this paper the author analyzes the impact of immigration cohorts on the earnings differential between long-term immigrants and natives in Russia. The nationally representative data came from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey for 2010–2015. The main methods of empirical analysis in the study are ordinary least squares regression and the random effects model. The obtained results show that long-term immigrants who moved to Russia in the 2000s earn less on average than natives and those who moved to the country in the 1990s. The findings can be explained by two main reasons. On the one hand, cohorts differ in length of the residence period in the country. It is expected that immigrants who moved to Russia in the 1990s have been living in the country for a longer time and could have gained more competence and skills required for the Russian labor market. This, in turn, may positively affect their earnings. On the other hand, the two groups are quite heterogeneous in terms of human capital. Immigrants from the later cohort are less educated, and the share of ethnic Russian respondents among them is also lower compared to those who moved to the country in the 1990s. Distinctions in human capital lead to differences in earnings between the two groups of immigrants.

The study is devoted to employment of recent vocational graduates. The pro­portion of middle-school graduates in vocational enrollment has increased es­sentially over the past decade, which indicates that the choice of vocational trajectories, on average, is now made at lower age. It was established based on the Monitoring of Education Markets and Organizations that on average 44 percent of students combined work and study in 2010–2015. Vocational students mostly combine and work and study because of financial constraints, their study-work rarely being related to their major. Later on, when making a transition from education to the labor market, vocational graduates have to ac­cept one of the first job offers as they cannot afford a longer job search. The second part of the study draws upon the findings from the 2010–2015 sam­pling survey of graduate employment administered by the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat). It is shown that combining work and study has posi­tive effects on employability of graduates as well as on the size of their starting salaries. In addition, self-funded students and those who combine study with major-related work are more likely to get employed in their field of study af­ter graduation. Education-job mismatch among graduates is found to entail income “penalties”.

This paper examines the cultural employment in Russia and in the selected number of the EU countries in light of debates on the development of the creative economy in Russia. The data of the comprehensive monitoring of living conditions by Rosstat and the Eurostat cultural statistics are used to illustrate main differences in socio-demographic and occupational characteristics of cultural workers in these countries. The findings show that the characteristics of cultural workers vary dramatically over countries Russia and Europe. In particular, part-time and self-employment, as well as the existence of a second job, are not key features of Russian cultural workers. By contrary, individuals involved in the creative and cultural sphere in the EU are less likely to be in a full-time employment and more likely to be self-employed or part-timers than in Russia. Our results suggest that it is hardly possible to also indicate the impossibility of emulating the European experience in creative and cultural industries without serious structural changes in the sphere of cultural employment in Russia.

This paper evaluates the design of current contractual incentive mechanisms in Russian universities depending on the type of higher education institution after recent significant contractual reforms in the national academic sector. We employ the theoretical framework of incentive contracts in order to identify and assess performance measures of university faculty determining the total income received from teaching, research and administrative duties. We estimate returns from academic productivity in Russia to be reflected in the academic salary by an evaluation of empirical models of the determinants of faculty pay depending on their productivity, current academic and administrative position, gender and seniority. We show that for the entire sample, faculty salary is positively associated with publication activity. Teaching is significant only for the entire sample, but not significant for subsamples. Administrative duties (expressed in the position held) are positively related to faculty pay: the largest effect is for rectors and vice-rectors, but for deans and heads of departments or laboratories the effect is also strong. Heads of universities and structural units receive a significant bonus for their administrative position. For research-oriented universities the largest effect in publication activity is for the number of papers in high ranking journals. In universities with no research status we discovered a significant gender gap: the male faculty earn more than their female colleagues. There is a positive linear relationship between salary and seniority for the entire sample and in universities with no special status, which corresponds to human capital theory. Salaries in universities requiring higher entrance exam scores are higher than in less selective higher education institutions. The salary in Moscow universities is higher than in the regional higher education institutions.