Informal employment: structure and risk determinants in Russia

Abstract

The article addresses the issue of risks to be in informal employment in Russia. To estimate them regression analysis was run on the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE) micro-data on individuals. Periods of 2009 and 2014 were taken for reference as periods when the economic crisis reached its peak in the labour market in Russia and a new financial and economic instability unfolding began respectively. The results obtained show the risks of being in informal employment to be distributed unevenly among the employed individuals. In addition, a systematic (stable) differences between the groups of informally and formally employed were found. It was also proved that an individual’s decision on informal employment is not always voluntary but on the contrary appears to be forced in many cases. The concluding remarks in the article address policy makers and highlight a need to take into account heterogeneity of the groups of informally employed when pursuing a policy. Refs. 18. Fig. 2. Tables 3.