Stemming Russia’s Informality : Unearthing Causes and Developing Solutions
Growing informal employment in Russia raises concerns about fiscal sustainability, productivity, and social protection. Cutting through various data and definitions, this report finds one consistent outcome: informal employment is on the rise. As o...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/104631559937117457/Stemming-Russia-s-Informality-Unearthing-Causes-and-Developing-Solutions http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31883 |
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okr-10986-318832021-05-25T09:24:51Z Stemming Russia’s Informality : Unearthing Causes and Developing Solutions Sanghi, Apurva Freije-Rodriguez, Samuel Posarac, Aleksandra INFORMAL EMPLOYMENT INFORMAL ECONOMY INFORMALITY LABOR MARKET LABOR POLICY SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES MINIMUM WAGE JOB CREATION TAXATION Growing informal employment in Russia raises concerns about fiscal sustainability, productivity, and social protection. Cutting through various data and definitions, this report finds one consistent outcome: informal employment is on the rise. As of 2016, Russia’s informal employment was estimated to range between 15.1 and 21.2 percent. The fiscal loss of underpayment by informal workers is estimated at between 1 to 2.3 percent of GDP. However, Russia’s share of informal employment is not that high when compared to other middle-income countries. In fact, countries such as Kazakhstan and Turkey, who have a similar GDP per capita as Russia, exhibit higher informal employment rates – 30 and 33 percent, respectively. Informal employment is a pervasive phenomenon in Russian labor markets, and its growth cannot be solely attributed to changes in the sectoral or demographic composition of the labor force. Rather, informality appears to have been growing across all sectors and particularly among workers without at least some tertiary education. Migrants tend to be more informal: the 2016 share of informal migrant workers (only partially captured in the surveys) was 26.2 percent, versus 15.7 percent of Russian workers. The increase in informality is attributed mainly to the lack of formal job creation, which in recent years, was close to zero. The report focuses on three aspects that affect informality: labor market regulations; taxes and benefits; and labor mobility. 2019-06-14T16:58:43Z 2019-06-14T16:58:43Z 2019-05 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/104631559937117457/Stemming-Russia-s-Informality-Unearthing-Causes-and-Developing-Solutions http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31883 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Working Paper Europe and Central Asia Russian Federation |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
INFORMAL EMPLOYMENT INFORMAL ECONOMY INFORMALITY LABOR MARKET LABOR POLICY SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES MINIMUM WAGE JOB CREATION TAXATION |
| spellingShingle |
INFORMAL EMPLOYMENT INFORMAL ECONOMY INFORMALITY LABOR MARKET LABOR POLICY SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES MINIMUM WAGE JOB CREATION TAXATION Sanghi, Apurva Freije-Rodriguez, Samuel Posarac, Aleksandra Stemming Russia’s Informality : Unearthing Causes and Developing Solutions |
| geographic_facet |
Europe and Central Asia Russian Federation |
| description |
Growing informal employment in Russia
raises concerns about fiscal sustainability, productivity,
and social protection. Cutting through various data and
definitions, this report finds one consistent outcome:
informal employment is on the rise. As of 2016, Russia’s
informal employment was estimated to range between 15.1 and
21.2 percent. The fiscal loss of underpayment by informal
workers is estimated at between 1 to 2.3 percent of GDP.
However, Russia’s share of informal employment is not that
high when compared to other middle-income countries. In
fact, countries such as Kazakhstan and Turkey, who have a
similar GDP per capita as Russia, exhibit higher informal
employment rates – 30 and 33 percent, respectively. Informal
employment is a pervasive phenomenon in Russian labor
markets, and its growth cannot be solely attributed to
changes in the sectoral or demographic composition of the
labor force. Rather, informality appears to have been
growing across all sectors and particularly among workers
without at least some tertiary education. Migrants tend to
be more informal: the 2016 share of informal migrant workers
(only partially captured in the surveys) was 26.2 percent,
versus 15.7 percent of Russian workers. The increase in
informality is attributed mainly to the lack of formal job
creation, which in recent years, was close to zero. The
report focuses on three aspects that affect informality:
labor market regulations; taxes and benefits; and labor mobility. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Sanghi, Apurva Freije-Rodriguez, Samuel Posarac, Aleksandra |
| author_facet |
Sanghi, Apurva Freije-Rodriguez, Samuel Posarac, Aleksandra |
| author_sort |
Sanghi, Apurva |
| title |
Stemming Russia’s Informality : Unearthing Causes and Developing Solutions |
| title_short |
Stemming Russia’s Informality : Unearthing Causes and Developing Solutions |
| title_full |
Stemming Russia’s Informality : Unearthing Causes and Developing Solutions |
| title_fullStr |
Stemming Russia’s Informality : Unearthing Causes and Developing Solutions |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Stemming Russia’s Informality : Unearthing Causes and Developing Solutions |
| title_sort |
stemming russia’s informality : unearthing causes and developing solutions |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2019 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/104631559937117457/Stemming-Russia-s-Informality-Unearthing-Causes-and-Developing-Solutions http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31883 |
| _version_ |
1764475287248044032 |