The Russian Labor Market Story: Deciphering the Puzzles with Vladimir Gimpelson

How can the Russian economy, moving from one crisis to another one, avoid significant hikes in unemployment? How does human capital evolve when workers’ wages peak so early and then decline so steeply? How does a country so rich in human capital exhibit such low productivity? Vladimir Gimpelson suggests some explanations and proposes how examining them can help in understanding past, present and future of the Russian economic performance. - Vladimir Gimpelson is Professor of Practice in Russian Studies in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, UW-Madison.