Vulnerability to welfare change during economic shocks: Evidence from the 1998 Russian crisis

Using changes in consumption as a proxy for "vulnerability" we identify the characteristics associated with vulnerability around the time of the 1998 Russian financial crisis. In addition, we examine the role of formal and informal safety nets in preserving individual well being. We apply quantile regression techniques in order to identify the characteristics associated with vulnerability across the two periods. Amongst those most vulnerable during the crisis were, less educated individuals living in urban areas, in households containing greater numbers of pensioners. Furthermore, we found that increases in home production and help from relatives acted to decrease vulnerability, especially amongst those suffering the largest changes in consumption. Following the crisis, amongst the least vulnerable were, better educated individuals, resident in urban areas, able to increase home production, and in receipt of improved pension payments and child benefits.

The Gender Wage Gap and Wage Arrears in Russia: Evidence from the RLMS

Using the RLMS, this paper re-examines the gender wage gap in Russia from 1994 to 1998. We find that the average gender wage gap was fairly stable during 1994-1996 but that it became wider following the financial crisis of 1998. In particular, low-income female employees were hardest hit by the financial crisis. Furthermore, we find that wage arrears and payment in kind acted as compensating mechanisms to reduce losses stemming from higher wage discrimination, suggesting that the allocation of wage arrears and payment in kind was driven by equity considerations for female workers. Yet the relationship between wage arrears and the gender wage gap was not linear: female employees suffering wage arrears at low levels of the wage distribution failed to enjoy such compensation.

Gender, education and Russia’s tobacco epidemic: a life-course approach

While a number of studies, based on cross-sectional data for Russia, have documented strong increases in female smoking during the past two decades, the analysis of longer-term trends in smoking prevalence is hampered by the lack of representative data for the Soviet era. In this paper we create life-course smoking histories based on retrospective data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey of HSE (RLMS-HSE) and the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) which allow us to examine the dynamics of smoking patterns over the past 7 decades. We find that smoking rates differ most strongly by gender within all cohorts, but that this differential has decreased over time, driven by increases in female smoking and more recently by decreases in smoking among men. For both genders we observe that the education gradient has become steeper over time, with smoking rates having increased at a higher rate among those with the lowest educational attainment. These findings suggest that the development of smoking in Russia mirrors that described in the model of the tobacco epidemic and observed in Western high-income countries

Vulnerability to welfare change during economic shocks: Evidence from the 1998 Russian crisis

Using changes in consumption as a proxy for 'vulnerability' we identify the characteristics associated with vulnerability around the time of the 1998 Russian financial crisis. In addition, we examine the role of formal and informal safety nets in preserving individual well being. We apply quantile regression techniques in order to identify the characteristics associated with vulnerability across the two periods. Amongst those most vulnerable during the crisis were, less educated individuals living in urban areas, in households containing greater numbers of pensioners. Furthermore, we found that increases in home production and help from relatives acted to decrease vulnerability, especially amongst those suffering the largest changes in consumption. Following the crisis, amongst the least vulnerable were, better educated individuals, resident in urban areas, able to increase home production, and in receipt of improved pension payments and child benefits

Privatisation, corporate control and employment growth:evidence from a panel of large Polish firms, 1996-2002

Using panel data on large Polish firms this paper examines the relationship between corporate control structures, sales growth and the determinants of employment change during the period 1996-2002. We find that privatised and de novo firms are the main drivers of employment growth and that, in the case of de novo firms, it is foreign ownership which underpins the result. Interestingly, we find that being privatised has a positive impact on employment growth but that this impact is concentrated within a range of three to six years after privatisation. In contrast with the findings of earlier literature, we find evidence that there are no systematic differences in employment response to negative sales growth across the ownership categories. On the other hand, employment in state firms is less responsive to positive sales growth. From these combined results we infer that the behaviour of state firms is constrained by both insider rent sharing and binding budget constraints. Consistent with this, we find that privatised companies, three to six years post-privatisation, are the firms for whom employment is most responsive to positive sales growth and as such, offer the best hope for rapid labour market expansion

Site Characterization Using Integrated Imaging Analysis Methods on Satellite Data of the Islamabad, Pakistan, Region

We develop an integrated digital imaging analysis approach to produce a first-approximation site characterization map for Islamabad, Pakistan, based on remote-sensing data. We apply both pixel-based and object-oriented digital imaging analysis methods to characterize detailed (1:50,000) geomorphology and geology from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) satellite imagery. We use stereo-correlated relative digital elevation models (rDEMs) derived from ASTER data, as well as spectra in the visible near-infrared (VNIR) to thermal infrared (TIR) domains. The resulting geomorphic units in the study area are classified as mountain (including the Margala Hills and the Khairi Murat Ridge), piedmont, and basin terrain units. The local geologic units are classified as limestone in the Margala Hills and the Khairi Murat Ridge and sandstone rock types for the piedmonts and basins. Shear-wave velocities for these units are assigned in ranges based on established correlations in California. These ranges include Vs30-values to be greater than 500 m/sec for mountain units, 200–600 m/sec for piedmont units, and less than 300 m/sec for basin units. While the resulting map provides the basis for incorporating site response in an assessment of seismic hazard for Islamabad, it also demonstrates the potential use of remote-sensing data for site characterization in regions where only limited conventional mapping has been done

Mortality and financial crises

Drawing on a dataset covering more than 100 countries from 1970 to 2007, we estimate the impact of different types of financial crises on male and female mortality. We find that only currency crises have a direct short-term impact on mortality rates. We stylize our reading of the key empirical evidence of this paper in the following way: of three distinct types of financial crises, it is currency crises that have a direct short-term impact on mortality rates, and this is particularly the case for males