Supply in the Russian labor market: gender aspect

Abstract

The article deals with the economic activity of the Russian population both in general and in the gender aspect. The main attention in the work is focused on the relationship between the economic activity of population and wages. The objectives of the work are, firstly, to identify differences in the behavior of men and women in the labor market in terms of economic activity, and, secondly, to test the hypothesis on the relationship between the economic activity of population and wages. The article provides an overview of the factors affecting the size of labor force and the level of participation in it, as well as statistical data reflecting male and female economic activity in modern Russia. Analysis of the labor activity dynamics leads to the conclusion that there are significant differences in male and female behavior in the labor market. The main cause of these differences is the traditional views of the population on the roles of men and women in society. Also the regression equations connecting the level of economic activity with the average real wage are determined both for the population of the Russian Federation as a whole, and for men and women separately. These equations can be considered as modified functions of the labor supply. Calculations have shown that, despite the general linear nature of the dependence of the economic activity level of population on real wages, its growth leads, ceteris paribus, to an accelerating increase in the activity of men and a slowing increase in the activity of women. The revealed low elasticity of labor supply functions indicates that any significant impact on the level of labor activity can only be provided by significant increase in real wages. First of all, the last statement applies to women.