The Oxford Handbook of the Russian Economy
The Oxford Handbook of the Russian Economy

Author: Michael Alexeev

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2013-06-04

Total Pages: 1024

ISBN-13: 0199339988

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By 1999, Russia's economy was growing at almost 7% per year, and by 2008 reached 11th place in the world GDP rankings. Russia is now the world's second largest producer and exporter of oil, the largest producer and exporter of natural gas, and as a result has the third largest stock of foreign exchange reserves in the world, behind only China and Japan. But while this impressive economic growth has raised the average standard of living and put a number of wealthy Russians on the Forbes billionaires list, it has failed to solve the country's deep economic and social problems inherited from the Soviet times. Russia continues to suffer from a distorted economic structure, with its low labor productivity, heavy reliance on natural resource extraction, low life expectancy, high income inequality, and weak institutions. While a voluminous amount of literature has studied various individual aspects of the Russian economy, in the West there has been no comprehensive and systematic analysis of the socialist legacies, the current state, and future prospects of the Russian economy gathered in one book. The Oxford Handbook of the Russian Economy fills this gap by offering a broad range of topics written by the best Western and Russian scholars of the Russian economy. While the book's focus is the current state of the Russian economy, the first part of the book also addresses the legacy of the Soviet command economy and offers an analysis of institutional aspects of Russia's economic development over the last decade. The second part covers the most important sectors of the economy. The third part examines the economic challenges created by the gigantic magnitude of regional, geographic, ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity of Russia. The fourth part covers various social issues, including health, education, and demographic challenges. It will also examine broad policy challenges, including the tax system, rule of law, as well as corruption and the underground economy. Michael Alexeev and Shlomo Weber provide for the first time in one volume a complete, well-rounded, and essential look at the complex, emerging Russian economy.

Rapid Labor Reallocation with a Stagnant Unemployment Pool
Rapid Labor Reallocation with a Stagnant Unemployment Pool

Author: Jan Rutkowski

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 92

ISBN-13:

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Lithuania is a transition economy undergoing rapid enterprise restructuring associated with substantial job turnover. At the same time, unemployment in Lithuania is high and of long duration. This presents a puzzle: high job turnover epitomizes labor market flexibility, while high unemployment indicates labor market rigidities. What are the reasons behind this paradox? Why do the unemployed not benefit from job opportunities created by high job turnover, which entails high rates of job creation and hiring? To answer this question, the author looks at three perspectives on labor market flexibility: 1) The macroeconomic perspective-A flexible labor market is one that facilitates full use and efficient allocation of labor resources. 2) The worker perspective-A flexible labor market means ease in finding a job paying a wage adequate to the worker's effort and skills. 3) The employer perspective-A flexible labor market does not unduly constrain the employer's ability to adjust employment and wages to changing market conditions. The author looks at all three dimensions of labor market flexibility by analyzing job reallocation, worker transitions across labor force states, wage distribution, and regulatory constraints faced by employers. He focuses on the issue of job creation and job destruction, using micro level data on all registered firms. He finds that flexibility in one dimension can concur with rigidities in the other. Specifically, employers in Lithuania have a substantial degree of flexibility with employment adjustment coupled with limited flexibility to wage adjustment due to a high statutory minimum wage. The relatively rigid wage structure locks low productivity workers who are preponderant among the unemployed. The low-skilled long-term unemployed have become marginalized and unable to successfully compete for available jobs, while the high job turnover is accounted for largely by job-to-job transitions. As a result, a dynamic labor market coincides with a stagnant unemployment pool.

Capacity Building in Economics Education and Research
Capacity Building in Economics Education and Research

Author: François Bourguignon

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 0821365967

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This book presents papers from the conference on "Scaling up the Success of Capacity Building in Economic Education and Research," which took place in Budapest at the Central European University campus. It includes contributions from key researchers, academics and policy makers from Europe, the United States, and developing countries that identify and brainstorm on capacity building challenges.

Globalization and Public Sector Reform in China
Globalization and Public Sector Reform in China

Author: Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-04-24

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 131793427X

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This book analyses public sector reform comprehensively in all parts of China’s public sector – government bureaucracy, public service units and state-owned enterprises. It argues that reform of the public sector has become an issue of great concern to the Chinese leaders, who realize that efficient public administration is key to securing the regime’s governing capacity and its future survival. The book shows how thinking about public sector reform has shifted in recent decades from a quantitative emphasis on 'small government', which involved the reduction in size of what was perceived as a bloated bureaucracy, to an emphasis on the quality of governance, which may result in an increase in public sector personnel. The book shows how, although Western ideas about public sector reform have had an impact, Chinese government continues to be best characterized as 'state capitalism', with the large state-owned enterprises continuing to play an important – and increasing – role in the economy and in business. However, state-owned enterprises no longer provide care for large numbers of people from the cradle to the grave – finding an alternative, efficient way of delivering basic welfare and health care is the big challenge facing China’s public sector.

Enhancing Job Opportunities
Enhancing Job Opportunities

Author:

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2005-01-01

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 0821361961

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Annotation This title looks at ways governments can promote the creation of more and better jobs in the region. It addresses the question of why labour market outcomes have been disappointing during the transition, and suggests policy interventions to promote firms' investment, job creation and economic development.