@techreport{Gimpelson2000Public,
abstract = {Public employment grew surprisingly fast in Russia during the 1990s, at a time when total
employment was falling. Most of this growth occurred in the country?s 89 regions, and rates
varied among them. This paper seeks to explain this variation. Using panel data for 78
regions over 1992-1998 we test several hypotheses. We show that the increase in the share
of public employment in total employment has been greatest where unemployment was
highest and growing the fastest, in ethnically defined territorial units, and in regions which
received larger federal transfers and loans. Regional governors appear to use public
employment for several purposes: as a kind of economic insurance to cushion the
population against unemployment; as a way of buying votes before elections; and, possibly,
as a way of redistributing to minority ethnic groups. Their willingness to use it for any of
these is conditioned by the level of federal financial aid they can attract. The paradoxical
growth of public employment in Russia appears less a result of ignorant or irresolute central
management than a perverse outgrowth of the competitive game of federal politics, in which
regional governors use public sector workers as ?hostages? to extract transfers.},
author = {Vladimir Gimpelson and Daniel Treisman and Galina Monusova},
copyright = {http://www.econstor.eu/dspace/Nutzungsbedingungen},
keywords = {H11; H51; P62; H52; H72; H77; J45; 330; Redistribution; regional governments; unemployment; transfers; wages; wage arrears; Russia; transition; \"{O}ffentlicher Dienst; Arbeitsmarktpolitik; Public Choice; Regionale Arbeitslosigkeit; Einkommensumverteilung; Finanzausgleich; Sch\"{a}tzung; Russland},
language = {eng},
number = {161},
title = {Public Employment and Redistributive Politics: Evidence from Russia?s Regions},
type = {IZA Discussion paper series},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10419/21003},
year = {2000}
}
