CREECA Lecture: “The Russian Labor Market Story: Deciphering the Puzzles” with Vladimir Gimpelson

Vladimir Gimpelson looks at the Russian labor market story and addresses three interconnected questions. First, how can the economy, moving from one crisis to another one, avoid significant hikes in unemployment? Second, how does the human capital evolve when workers’ wages peak so early and then decline so steeply? Third, how does a country so rich in human capital exhibit such low productivity? These questions seem puzzling, since they contradict stylized facts and theory-grounded expectations. Vladimir Gimpelson suggests some explanations based on his academic work and proposes how examining them can help in understanding past, present and future of the Russian economic performance.

About the Speaker: Dr. Vladimir Gimpelson is Professor of Practice in the department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, UW-Madison, and an IZA Fellow. In his research, Dr. Gimpelson addresses a wide range of labor market related issues concerning Russia and other post-socialist economies. Among his multiple publications are 6 monographs, including The Russian Labour Market Between Transitions and Turmoil (Rowman and Littlefield, 2001), articles in various academic journals (Economics of Transition, World Politics, The British Journal of Political Science, Economics and Politics, Slavic Review, IZA Journal of Labour and Development, Comparative Economic Studies, Journal of Comparative Economics, among others). He has worked on numerous projects as a consultant to the OECD, IMF, World Bank, EC, and ILO. Until 2023, he had been the Director of the Centre for Labor Market Studies and Professor of Economics at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.