Impact of Universal Basic Income on Employment According to Russian Experts

The issue of universal basic income (UBI) has been gaining importance due to the growth of precarious employment, unemployment and inequality in the context of the development of digital technologies, especially considering the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences. The article first presents the generalised and systemised reasoned opinions of Russian experts on UBI in order to examine its potential impact on employment. The initial research data resulted from a survey of different groups of Russian experts conducted by the authors. This information was supplemented by the results of various mass surveys. It was revealed that a significant part of Russian experts have concerns that UBI can negatively affect work incentives and labour supply. The systematisation of expert assessments allowed the research to create scenarios of the potential impact of UBI on population employment and work incentives, formal and informal employment, the ratio between paid and unpaid work, working and free time, the quality of leisure time. The study findings can be used as information and analytical support for the state policies aimed at improving the level and quality of life of the population, as well as making decisions on the appropriateness of UBI tools (including in Russia). Future research will examine in detail the impact of universal basic income on the labour market parameters, taking into account socio-demographic factors. © 2022 Institute of Economics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Platform Employment: From Unsustainable to Sustainable Development

The article analyzes the characteristics and scale of platform employment in Russia and the world on the basis of surveys and research by international organizations. The authors have systematized and summarized the opportunities, risks and consequences of this type of employment for different actors of the labor market. Recommendations are proposed for solving the problem of the volatility of platform employment in Russia, taking into account the fact that its scale will grow over time. It was revealed that this area requires the development of regulatory methods, legislative initiatives and new solutions aimed at implementation of its advantages and limiting of threats. Platform employment policy should be an integral part of overall employment policy, and platform workers should have the right to decent work, social guarantees and recognition of their status as “employees”. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Transitional Forms of Universal Basic Income as a Real Prospect for Russia

The article presents the research results aimed at developing the theoretical provisions of the universal basic income concept summarizing and systematizing the results of a survey of Russian experts conducted by the authors about its principles, the possibilities of introduction in Russia, priority population categories for testing it, assessing the reality of expanding the tools of universal basic income taking into account the development of transitional forms of its use during the COVID-19 pandemic. The work reveals the relevance of UBI concept development in the context of the need to overcome mass poverty in Russia. The result of the theoretical analysis shows that generally recognized UBI principles (universality, unconditionality, individual nature of monetary payments, their regularity) are justified by long-term trends in social policy evolution. The prospect of introducing universal basic income is presented as a qualitative transition (leap) in implementation of the latter. The social policy measures, closest to implementation of UBI principles, are characterized as its transitional forms including experiments on its introduction. To assess the practical feasibility of UBI transitional forms, the article uses the results of a survey of experts from different Russian regions conducted with the authors' participation and a pilot experiment and modeling of the results of UBI toolkit implementation. The paper proposes a possible scheme for implementing UBI tools in Russia, as well as pilot projects for low-income families with children, graduates of universities and secondary vocational educational institutions during the transition from study to the first place of work, the unstable employed (including the unemployed). The authors assess the paradox of activating the implementation of UBI principles in the context of the COVID-2019 pandemic under unfavorable financial conditions as confirming the reality of the prospects for its transitional forms for Russia. The results of the study can contribute to the development of discussions about the introduction of UBI tools in the Russian Federation, and to the promotion of its wide experimental testing for different population categories. It is advisable to continue research in the aspect of analyzing the experience of developing social support in the context of a pandemic and modeling the possible effects and costs of introducing UBI.