Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey - Higher School Of Economics Research Articles

Как удовлетворённость жизнью зависит от типа населённого пункта?

Life satisfaction is a multidimensional indicator that is influenced by many factors. Studies of national life satisfaction factors provide adequate estimates when countries are homogeneous “macroregions” with common social, cultural, and institutional foundations. However, within large and heterogeneous national states, of which Russia is one, internal regional differences in living conditions can be significant, which means that assessments of happiness levels are dominated by various factors, including the type of human settlement and its inherent characteristics. The conducted research is deepening the understanding of the factors that have a significant impact on subjective life satisfaction in various types of settlements in Russia - cities, towns, and villages. The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey - Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) was used as the data source. Econometric modeling is based on an ordered logit model with random effects using panel data. We discovered the high significance of subjective evaluation of wealth satisfaction, worried needs, and availability of paid vacations for all Russians, regardless of the type of settlement. The main differences in the set and degree of influence of factors lie along the line separating the values of collectivism and individualism, which are dominant in cities and villages, respectively. There is less concern about health and the possibility of job loss among rural residents reliant on the support of neighbors and family, in which men do not associate life satisfaction with the duration of the working day, and women do not associate life satisfaction with the amount of wage and maternity. In contrast, individualistically oriented residents of cities where nuclear families predominate and connections among people are weak tend to derive life satisfaction from self-realization through earnings, leisure, children, and health care.

Live long – work long: social well-being of working pensioners

Based on the data from the "Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey - Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE)", a dynamic analysis of indicators characterising the social well-being of working pensioners has been conducted for the years 1994 to 2022. The current trend in the dynamics of these indicators is characterised as weakly positive but with a potential for decline. It is shown that the current level of social well-being among working pensioners, which includes increased self-confidence and readiness to overcome life difficulties, contributes to maintaining the stability of their adaptive potential.
 Throughout the various stages of the transformational period, working pensioners who exhibited greater autonomy and had developed social capital consistently reported higher levels of social well-being compared not only to non-working pensioners but also to pre-pensioners who experienced growing anxiety due to the inevitable changes in social status and lifestyle upon retirement. The study did not find significant differences in the level of social well-being between working pensioners who retired after the increase in the retirement age and those who retired just before the pension reform.
 Substantial differentiation in the level of social well-being among representatives of the analysed category of pensioners, who are now found in almost all sectors and spheres of activity, is largely the result of their heterogeneous socio-economic status. Despite old age being a factor that increases social risks and vulnerability, working pensioners often overcome difficulties encountered during crises with fewer adaptation difficulties and costs than younger individuals. Key elements of social well-being that continue to play a consistently significant role in strengthening the adaptive potential of working pensioners include the fulfilment of the need for public recognition and social interaction, as well as self-assessment of health status. In the current socio-economic and demographic conditions, various aspects of the social adaptation of the older generation become particularly important, directly linked to the realisation of their resource potential and increased activity in the field of employment.

Self-Reported Hearing Aid Use in Russian Adults According to a National Survey.

Hearing loss is a significant public problem affecting 466 million people worldwide. Hearing-impaired persons benefit from the use of hearing aids, but the need is unmet in 85% of the global population. For the Russian population, no data have been found on this issue. The purpose of this study is to estimate the prevalence of hearing aid use in the Russian adult population. data on hearing aid use and self-reported trouble with hearing were obtained from the open access database of the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey-Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) for the years 1994-2021. the prevalence of hearing aid use in Russian adults ranged from 4.3 per 1000 (95% CI 3.2-5.9) to 8.8 per 1000 (95% CI 7.5-10.2). The mean rate of self-reported trouble with hearing was 22.2% (SD 0.8); of them, 2.2% (SD 0.2) used hearing aids, and it strongly correlated with older age (r = 0.889) and more severe hearing issues (r = 0.938). The overall prevalence of hearing aid use in Russian adults is very low with unmet needs in 98% of the cases of self-reported trouble with hearing, which is worse than in other populational studies and global estimates. The RLMS-HSE can be used for the monitoring of the national hearing health care system.

Working from home and job satisfaction: evidence from Russia

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of working from home and its duration on job satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis was conducted on a representative panel data set from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey - Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) for 2016–2021 using endogenous regression models. The impact of working from home on job satisfaction before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and separately for men and women, was analysed.FindingsWorking from home was found to positively affect job satisfaction in the Russian labour market. From 2016 to 2021, men and women who worked from home were more satisfied with their jobs than their counterparts who did not work from home. The positive impact of working from home on job satisfaction was observed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, remote workers (RWR) putting in more than eight hours per day reported lower job satisfaction.Research limitations/implicationsWorking from home can be considered as a measure to combat unemployment, increase employment and improve the utilisation (distribution) of human resources. Further research is required to analyse the impact of health issues and the need to care for young children or infirm persons on job satisfaction in remote work. A more detailed analysis is required of the factors that affect the job satisfaction of women who work remotely.Practical implicationsTo ensure that labour productivity increases and not decreases, employers are advised to develop more detailed working arrangements and labour management for RWRs. Especially for such assigned workers, task control regulations must be developed. To increase the motivation of individuals to work remotely, overtime should be paid at a higher rate.Social implicationsUnclear working time regulations lead to overwork, irregular working hours and burnout. For RWRs, this leads to lower job satisfaction and a consequent drop in productivity.Originality/valueThe empirical investigation is based on a representative panel of Russian data with six waves. Wide ranges of job characteristics were incorporated as determinants. The problem of causality was investigated. For models with an endogenous regressor, instrumental variables were tested and selected.

Agricultural workers’ labour satisfaction dependence in Russia with the use of the internet in professional activities

Digitalization process in the Russian agro-industrial complex is connected with an increase in the need for highly qualified personnel with competencies in the field of information and communication technologies. One of the most important incentives for consolidation highly professional personnel in rural areas is a high degree of employee satisfaction with the results of their work. The article purpose is to determine the influence degree of the Internet use by Russian agricultural workers for professional purposes on various aspects of their labour satisfaction. Based on data from The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey – Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) from 2010 to 2021, a various aspects’ comparative dynamic analysis of the labour satisfaction level of Internet users and non-users for production purposes, as well as the dynamics analysis of the Internet use by agricultural workers with the dynamics of job satisfaction level various aspects was carried out. Correlation analysis determined the influence degree of professional Internet use on the level of labour satisfaction; a dependence modeling between various aspects of labour satisfaction on the using the Internet intensity for professional purposes was accomplished. It is established that the information and communication technologies’ use increases the degree of satisfaction with various aspects of labor activity, having a special impact on professional growth opportunities. However, the growth of digital competencies raises the employees’ ambition level and, accordingly, decreases the level of his or her labour satisfaction. In order to consolidate highly professional personnel in the industry, a multi-faceted approach is needed, including all possible mechanisms of social and economic support that contribute to growth the satisfaction level of an agricultural employee with the results of his or her labor activity.

Bayesian Analysis of Multivariate Longitudinal Ordinal Data Using Multiple Multivariate Probit Models

Multivariate longitudinal ordinal data are often involved in longitudinal studies with each individual having more than one longitudinal ordinal measure. However, due to complicated correlation structures within each individual and no explicit likelihood functions, analyzing multivariate longitudinal ordinal data is quite challenging. In this paper, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling methods are developed to analyze multivariate longitudinal ordinal data by extending multivariate probit (MVP) models for univariate longitudinal ordinal data to multiple multivariate probit models (MMVP) for multivariate longitudinal ordinal data. The identifiable MVP models require the covariance matrix of the latent multivariate normal variables underlying the longitudinal ordinal variables to be a correlation matrix, thus a Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithm is usually necessitated, which brings a rigorous task to develop efficient MCMC sampling methods. In contrast to the identifiable MVP models, the non-identifiable MVP models can be constructed to circumvent a MH algorithm to sample a correlation matrix by a Gibbs sampling to sample a covariance matrix, and hence improve the mixing and convergence of the MCMC components. Therefore, both the identifiable MMVP models and the non-identifiable MMVP models for multivariate longitudinal ordinal data are presented, and their corresponding MCMC sampling methods are developed. The performances of these methods are illustrated through simulation studies and an application using data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey-Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE).

The Status of a Professional in Russian Institutional Conditions: Definition Methodology Group Specifics

Gaining the technological sovereignty is one of the main goals that the Russian Government is pursuing today. Under these conditions, the importance of professionals, who are “specialists of the highest qualification level” as defined by the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, is growing. The information about dynamics, composition and specific features of the group of professionals in Russia is becoming more significant as well. However, professionals as a group are now poorly identified. Among the data on professionals available for a researcher, only two credible sources of information can be named – the employment statistics published by the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation and scientific publications devoted to them, and the date from The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey – Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE). Only abovementioned sources provide data in which structure professionals are separately identified. Therefore, we assume that currently available information about professionals is insufficient, contradictory, and partly quite controversial. This is mainly due to methodological and methodical challenges of the definition of the term “professional”. This article analyzes how the term “professional” is defined in Russian science and statistics. The author offers ways to overcome the vagueness associated with the use of the term “professional” by analyzing features of Russian institutional environment. In this article, the main approaches to the interpretation of the concept "professional" in social sciences are determined. The specific features of the classification of the term in the ISCO-08 and All-Russian Classification of Occupations are considered in the article. The solution proposed involves correcting the basic version of ISCO-08 in RLMS-HSE databases. The advantages of an adjusted version of ISCO-08 that can be used in research on socio-professional structure in general and with the focus on professionals are demonstrated in the article. The article also discusses how the share, composition, and characteristic features of the group of professionals change when the approach offered by the author is applied. The multidirectional dynamics in the share of professionals when different versions of ISCO-08 are used is demonstrated on the RLMS-HSE data from 2001–2021, and the conclusion is made about the specifics of the institutional environment in Russia which strongly affects the situation of this professional group.

Significant Indicators of Precarious Employment and Their Priority

The article is devoted to the problem of identifying significant indicators of precarious employment and their priority, the solution of which was based on the authors: 1) checking indicators for multicollinearity, for which, based on the processing of data from the Federal State Statistics Service and The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey - Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE), an array of data was generated for the period 2010-2020; 2) checking indicators based on expert assessments of Russian specialists collected in 2022 during a survey specially organized by the authors. Taking into account the integration of the verification results by two methods, the indicators of the initial list proposed by the authors were clarified and verified and the final list of indicators of precarious employment was formed. The final list includes indicators that make it possible to identify objective (taking into account the assessment of the type of registration of employment and employment conditions) and subjective (taking intoaccount the assessment of the presence of instability of the labor situation and dissatisfaction with employment and its conditions) manifestations of precarious employment in relation to Russian conditions. The prioritization of indicators of precarious employment was carried out and three groups of indicators were identified by priority level to characterize its manifestations: with a high (key indicators), medium and below medium priority level. The boundary for the indicator of the level of income from basic employment, which does not ensure the stability of the financial situation of households, has been clarified. It was revealed that precarious employment, regardless of the type of employed households, is identified by income from basic employment, which does not allow per capita income to be brought to the level of standards that form middle and higher material security (3.1 of subsistence minimum and higher).

Short-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment and income of the Russian population: which groups were affected the most?

The paper analyzes short-term factors of job loss, wage reduction and factors of household income reduction in Russia in the context of the coronavirus crisis. Panel data of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey - Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) served as empirical basis of the study. According to the study results, the highest risks of job loss are registered among females, young employees, unskilled workers, workers without professional education, and workers with low wages. However, almost the only factor of wage reduction (in case of retained employment) is employment in the most affected industries. Household income prior to the pandemic is the key determinant of household income reduction – the higher the level of material wellbeing, the higher the risk of income reduction. Increased probability of income reduction is also reported for families with children. The study has confirmed the hypothesis about negative impact of vulnerable employment on employment and wages of individuals, as well as household income.

Dynamics of Pension Indicators: Analysis of Russian Micro Data

The article represents the statistical analysis of the pension provision indicators dynamics. The research is based on The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey – Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) data for 2002, 2008, 2014 and 2020. The dynamics of pensions, ratio of the pensions to the pensioner’s subsistence minimum has been analyzed. The research revealed that the retirement drastically reduces the older person’s well-being. The pensioner’s employment enables households to maintain a relatively high level of average per capita income. Most of the employed pensioners work in state-owned enterprises, live in regional centers and cities, and have a high level of education.

Non-Cognitive Skills of NEET Youth in Russia

The study of non-cognitive skills of NEET youth — e.g., those who are out of employment, education or training — presents an important development in the research framework of the factors of being NEET. The very presence and level of various non-cognitive skills since childhood affect the process of accumulation of human capital, future productivity, wage level, occupational choice, duration and quality of job search. The empirical basis of the study was provided by the data of the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey Higher School of Economics (RLMSHSE) for 2016-2017. The choice of this period is determined by the special module of questions about non-cognitive skills according to the Big Five classification, included in RLMS-HSE questionnaire in 2016. They provided the empirical assessment of five personality traits of respondents, which are most often analysed in modern research literature on non-cognitive skills. Different types of NEET youth, students and employed young people were compared with respect to their level of these non-cognitive skills. Measures of non-cognitive skills have also been used as explanatory variables in multinomial logit models of ‘choice’ of particular labour market status type among young people, as well as in dynamic multinomial logit models, describing their transition from education to one of the NEET types. Research results revealed differences in non-cognitive characteristics between groups of young people occupying different positions in the field of education and employment. The obtained results indicate that non-cognitive framework of analysis of success of young people in education and work confirms its relevance on Russian data.

Returns to education in Russia: Nowhere below?

The paper presents a wide set of estimates for returns to education in Russia, introducing a number of new sources of microdata that previosly remained unused by both Russian and foreign researchers. Until now virtually all available estimates for Russia were based on data from a single source — The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey — Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE). According to these data, since the mid-2000s returns to education rapidly declined and have dropped to abnormally low levels. The paper tests the thesis of ultra-low economic value of Russian education using data from three alternative representative surveys regularly conducted by Rosstat. The analysis shows that currently returns to education in Russia reach 12—13%, which is much higher than the standard RLMS estimates. University-type tertiary education almost doubles earnings (its premium approaches to 100%), and even short-cycle tertiary education provides a premium of about 20—30%. Alternative sources also indicate that over the past 15 years, returns to education in Russia remained stable and, therefore, no decreasing trend in the economic value of education has been observed. This makes it possible to reject the currently popular thesis about abnormally low returns to education in Russia.

What makes youth become NEET? Evidence from Russia

ABSTRACT This article addresses the issue of socio-demographic attributes of NEET status (dropping out of employment, education or training for young people between 15 and 24 years old) in Russia, and presents an investigation of the impact of education on falling into NEET for the first time. Whilst existing studies on Russian NEETs provide a general descriptive insight into NEET status, little is known about the role of education in NEET-types formation. The empirical analysis was based on the micro-data of the Russian Labour Force Survey (LFS) by the Federal State Statistics Service for 1995–2017, and the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) for 2000–2017. Gender-specific multinomial logit analyses and dynamic multinomial logit panel regressions empirically support the heterogeneous nature of Russian NEETs confirming the human capital framework. They show that higher education does not provide a universal safety net from NEET status in Russia. While risks of NEET-inactivity are mainly concentrated among those who have primary or vocational education, NEET-unemployment in Russia is associated with higher education. Results contribute to the ongoing discussion about the changing rates of return for higher education and the saturation of the Russian labour market with university graduates.

Возможности и угрозы цифровизации для развития человеческого капитала на индивидуальном и региональном уровнях

In the context of digital transformation of the economy, human capital development depends on differences in earnings. Previous studies examined the relationship between wage differentiation and employee competencies without considering the regional digitalisation. The present research tests a hypothesis of the dependence of wage differentiation on individual digital competencies, likelihood of job computerisation and digital development of a region. Linear regression method based on Mincer equations was utilised. The empirical basis comprises data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey — Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) and statistics of the Federal State Statistics Service on the digitalisation of Russian regions in the period from 2003 to 2018. Development opportunities and threats have been conceptually identified in terms of substitution and supplementation of labour, distribution of entrepreneurial risks, the use of digital competencies and the influence of regional digitalisation on differences in individual earnings. The revealed professional polarisation of the Russian labour market due to digitalisation creates unequal opportunities for income growth and professional development in the mid-term. In contrast to previous studies, this research analysed how the likelihood of computerisation affects wages, showing that while, in general, digitalisation creates an advantage for human capital, an increase in computerisation reduces earnings by almost a quarter. High level of digitalisation of certain regions supports human capital, yielding a wage increase of 5–10 % on average. The study results can be practically applied to support strategic decisions for the development of digitalisation at the local and regional levels. Moreover, the necessity to monitor professions under the threat of digital automation in regions is shown.

The Subjective Perception of Employment Instability: Is It Bad to Be Unstable?

Nowadays in the literature, there are two perspectives on the spread of atypical labor contracts and unstable employment trajectories: some authors insist on the vulnerability of modern employees and the weakening of their bargaining position; others emphasize new opportunities for flexibility and independence from the employer. However, it remains unclear how employees react to these new employment conditions. Is instability a benefit or a sign of vulnerability for them? This discussion is most relevant for skilled young workers, as freedom and flexibility are of great value to them. The authors make an attempt to discover which position is closer to unstable workers in Russia. The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey-Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) data for 2014-2018 were used for the analysis. The panel data was used to construct the variable of instability in the labor market, taking into account the previous working status of the respondents (the sample size was 1,507 respondents). The main method of analysis was linear regression. The dependent variables were the components of subjective well-being, and the explanatory variable was the status of employment instability. The results show that employment instability is not related to respondents’ subjective well-being, nor to job insecurity. No differences in the subjective assessments of stable and unstable employees with different skills and income levels were found. The findings allow us to state that employment instability is not perceived by Russian employees as a distinct situation in the labor market, or as referring to negative or positive type of work or social position of an individual.

Dynamics of Russians’ Health Status in 2003–2018: The Relationship Between Objective and Subjective Characteristics

The article uses data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey – Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) from 2003–2018 to analyze the dynamics of the health status of Russians, determined through subjective and objective characteristics. It is shown that, regardless of the chosen indicator, relatively few Russians currently have a good health, and the proportion of people without diagnosed diseases and those who assess their health as good does not differ much. Analysis of the dynamics of various health characteristics has shown that against the background of a decrease in the share of Russians without diagnosed health problems, the number of people with positive self-assessments of their health has increased. However, this growth appeared in the period of 2003–2013, and then stopped. Results of the multinomial regression model demonstrate that having diagnosed diseases leads to a downward bias in self-assessments of individual’s health, the degree of which depends on the nature of the disease. However, the complete absence of such diseases does not mean that an individual evaluates his health as good, since several socioeconomic and demographic factors, including psycho-emotional state, also have a significant impact on this self-assessment of health. The article also shows that objective and subjective health characteristics are associated with the self-care practices, which, although they have become somewhat more popular in the period of 2003–2018, still are used only by a minority of Russians, even among young people.

Comparative Analysis of Interregional and Intersectoral Mobility in Russia

One of the most important characteristics of the labour market is labour mobility that allows assessing the economic efficienc y o f labour . A comparativ e analysi s i s necessar y fo r determinin g th e degre e o f mobility . I n term s o f spatia l and sectoral characteristics, the paper assesses the degree and dynamics of mobility in the Russian labour market based on previously published studies, as well as the authors’ findings. To determine the degree of mobility, the research uses various approaches, applying both direct (mobility costs, transition matrices) and indirect indicators (structural unemployment, wage differentiation, unemployment rate, gross regional product (GRP)). The analysis uses the data of the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey — Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) and Federal State Statistic Service (Rosstat) for 2000– 2016. The obtained results demonstrate a relatively low intersectoral and interregional mobility in Russia compared to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Low intersectoral mobility may indicate weak exchangeability of the sectors and high mobility costs. The largest number of transitions is observed in trade, where employees do not need any specific knowledge. Generally, other transitions are made between related sectors that require similar knowledge from employees. The lowest intersectoral mobility is characteristic for the education and health sectors. According to the Shorrocks index, in Russia, interregional mobility is lower than intersectoral mobility. Low spatial mobility is explained by high migration costs, including those associated with “poverty traps”, the peculiarity of statistical accounting of migrants and the size of Russian regions. The obtained results are correct for the examined period and the applied criteria. The changes in labour mobility in Russia caused by global digitalisation of the economy and the transition to remote working require a separate study.

Analysis of life satisfaction of the older population in Russia based on the RLMS-HSE microdata

Presently, population ageing is one of the main demographic trends in developed countries, including Russia. The article analyzes changes in life satisfaction of individuals aged 45–72 and reflects the main factors influencing this indicator. The research method employed in the study is econometric analysis based on data of the 21st, 23rd, 25thand 27th rounds of the annual Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey – Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE). The analysis showed that such indicators as self-assessment of health, income, having a pension and a permanent marital partner had a significant positive impact on life satisfaction for older individuals. It has been revealed that for both sexes an important factor of life satisfaction is the employment status, while the kind of activity turned out to be not statistically significant. The family status and family composition do not have any significant impact on life satisfaction for men, but they do for women.

Результативность трудового поведения домохозяйств в условиях трансформации отношений собственности и условий занятости

Цитирование: Темницкий А.Л. (2020) Результативность трудового поведения домохозяйств в условиях трансформации отношений собственности и условий занятости // Мир России. Т. 29. № 2. С. 134–155. DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2020-29-2-134-155
 В настоящей статье проблема результативности в трудовом поведении наемных работников анализируется с позиций целей и интересов домохозяйства. В этой связи в качестве важнейших результирующих показателей трудового поведения рассматриваются размер оплаты труда, соотнесенный с затратами времени, удовлетворенность оплатой и работой в целом, уверенность в занятости. В качестве информационной базы исследования используются данные Российского мониторинга экономического положения и здоровья населения (RLMS-HSE) за 1994–2017 гг. В статье дается диагностика эффективности трудового поведения городских наемных работников, занятых на формальном рынке труда, с учетом изменений в отношениях собственности и стабильности занятости в организациях. С помощью регрессионного анализа с фиктивными переменными выявлен вклад занятости на частных предприятиях в объяснение размера зарплаты. Показаны признаки потери привлекательности занятости на частных предприятиях, сохранения стабильности условий занятости для абсолютного большинства работников (за исключением ситуации с рабочим временем), вынужденного характера трудовой и профессиональной мобильности, роста уверенности в занятости при различных проявлениях динамичности в поведении, невозможности уделять больше времени семье из-за неготовности поступиться возможностями для заработка.

Indicators of Financial Security on the Micro-Level: Approach to Empirical Estimation

The article suggests an original approach to economic security system indicators formation at micro level based on the assessment of changes in households’ living and financial behavior under economic crisis.An econometric implementation based on the triangular recursive system of equations is used with a multivariate probit model, dealing with unobservable individual heterogeneity, with the bias atributed to omitted variables and endogeneity.The estimation was performed according to the representative survey of the population “The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey - Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) (RLMS-HSE, 2017).