Decreasing earnings inequality in Russia: Trends and drivers from 2005 to 2023

A. Lukyanova
Additional contact information
A. Lukyanova: HSE University, Moscow, Russia

Journal of the New Economic Association, 2024, vol. 65, issue 4, 267-275

Abstract: The paper examines the decline in earnings inequality in Russia since the early 2000s. The Gini index for earnings fell by nearly 40%, from 0.48 to 0.30. Using the data from two household surveys, we document the trends in inequality between 2005 and 2023 and identify potential drivers behind the trends. Econometric analysis employs RIF-based decompositions. My findings indicate that wage structure effects were the primary contributors to earnings compression, while composition effects - except in the 2020s - tended to exacerbate inequality. The paper highlights the most relevant explanations of changes in earnings inequality, including rising minimum wages, educational upgrading accompanied by declining returns to education, demographic shifts, regional convergence, narrowing rural - urban gaps, changes in industrial structure and industry premiums. Importantly, there was a notable distinction between the period following 2018-2019 and earlier years both in terms of the slowdown in inequality reduction and the mechanisms driving this reduction.

Keywords: earnings inequality; RIF-regressions; decomposition; RLMS; Russia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 J21 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.econorus.org/repec/journl/2024-65-267-275r.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:nea:journl:y:2024:i:65:p:267-275

DOI: 10.31737/22212264_2024_4_267-275

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the New Economic Association is currently edited by Victor Polterovich and Aleksandr Rubinshtein

More articles in Journal of the New Economic Association from New Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Alexey Tcharykov ().