@techreport{Lehmann2001Wage,
abstract = {The increase in wage inequality in Russia during its transition process has far exceeded the
increase in wage dispersion observed in other European countries undergoing transition.
Russia also has an extremely large incidence of wage arrears. We analyse to what extent
wage arrears affect the wage distribution and measures of wage inequality in Russia. We
present counterfactual distributions, derived from a variety of different methods, which
suggest that conventional measures of earnings dispersion would be some 20 to 30 per cent
lower in the absence of arrears. We then go on to show how wage gaps at various points in
the pay distribution across gender, education, region and industry are influenced by a failure
to allow for wage arrears. Using our counterfactual estimates we show, for example, that the
median gender wage gap would be around twenty-five points higher than the actual gap that
we observe. Similarly, the counterfactual ratio of mean graduate pay to mean pay of those
with primary education is around twenty points lower than observed. We show that the
parameters of the counterfactual wage distributions are very similar to the parameters of the
observed wage distributions of those not in arrears. This means that for those wishing to
study aspects of wage differentials and inequality in Russia, it may be feasible to use the
subset of those not in arrears and still get close to the true population parameters.},
author = {Hartmut Lehmann and Jonathan Wadsworth},
copyright = {http://www.econstor.eu/dspace/Nutzungsbedingungen},
keywords = {J6; 330; Wage arrears; earnings inequality; counterfactuals; transition economies; Lohn; Verbindlichkeiten; Zahlungsunf\"{a}higkeit; Lohnstruktur; Einkommensverteilung; Russland; Lohnr\"{u}ckst\"{a}nde},
language = {eng},
number = {410},
title = {Wage Arrears and the Distribution of Earnings in Russia},
type = {IZA Discussion paper series},
url = {http://hdl.handle.net/10419/21270},
year = {2001}
}
