Russia in the World System of Labor Productivity

Abstract

The article deals with the disposition of countries in the world system of labour productivity and the place of the Russian Federation in the current country hierarchy. It is noted that Russia is a typical representative of the semi-periphery (in the terminology of Wallerstein). Calculations show that in the period 1995–2005 the increase in labour productivity in Russia was 15% due to the factor of extensive growth in hours worked, i. e. due to the growth of labour exploitation. This process was reversed in the period 2006–2018 and ended in 2019 with the official proclamation by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of the workweek reform in the direction of its reduction to four days. It opens an era of the socially oriented doctrine of productivity growth. However, the main problem of Russia is the slowed of technological progress and the slowdown in productivity growth. The analysis showed that the implementation of the target standards for labour productivity, indicated in the official regulations, will reduce the backlog of Russia from the core countries. Forecast calculations show that even under the most favourable circumstances, the country can become a full participant in the world market of advanced technologies only by 2038. Thus, we substantiated the thesis about the impossibility of rapid results in the implementation of Russia’s catch-up development strategy due to the extremely low level of its current technological base, which involves a strategy of step-by-step reforms of the process of technological re-equipment of the Russian economy.