Breaking out of poverty traps: Internal migration and interregional convergence in Russia

Sergei Guriev and Elena Vakulenko

Journal of Comparative Economics, 2015, vol. 43, issue 3, 633-649

Abstract: We study barriers to labor mobility using panel data on gross region-to-region migration flows in Russia in 1996–2010. Using both parametric and semiparametric methods and controlling for region-to-region pairwise fixed effects, we find a non-monotonic relationship between income and migration. In richer regions, higher incomes result in lower migration outflows. However, in the poorest regions, an increase in incomes results in higher emigration. This is consistent with the presence of geographical poverty traps: potential migrants want to leave the poor regions but cannot afford to move. We also show that economic growth and financial development have allowed most Russian regions to grow out of poverty traps bringing down interregional differentials of wages, incomes and unemployment rates.

Keywords: Labor mobility; Poverty traps; Liquidity constraints (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (43)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147596715000268
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Breaking Out Of Poverty Traps: Internal Migration And Interregional Convergence In Russia (2015)
Working Paper: Breaking out of poverty traps: Internal migration and interregional convergence in Russia (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:43:y:2015:i:3:p:633-649

DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2015.02.002

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Comparative Economics is currently edited by D. Berkowitz and G. Roland

More articles in Journal of Comparative Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().