Migration and the quasi-labor market in Russia.

"This paper explores the twin concepts of labor demand and labor mobility during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. The study uses a detailed data set on labor stock, industrial labor demand, and labor flows for the 1980s in the Yaroslavl' Oblast, and data on migration and regional labor markets for all Russian regions in the 1990s. Contextual features, such as the social contract, full employment, methods of labor allocation, and a generally low rate of geographic mobility, distinguish the centrally planned quasi-labor market from the labor market in capitalist democracies. The findings suggest that net in-migration induces employment change in the current period rather than in a future period. The job creation effects appear concurrent with migration during the Soviet period. In the post-Soviet period, migration and employment relationships are not predictable based on the same relationships during the Soviet period."

Geographical and economic determinants of interregional migration in the USSR, 1968-1985.

"Interregional migration results in a regional redistribution of labor, essential under the current mismatch between the locations of labor and of natural resources and industrial capacity in the USSR. This study focuses on economic and geographical determinants of destination choice of migrants from 1968 through 1985. Particular emphasis is placed upon the relative effects of economic variables and quality of life factors and on the effect of gravity variables (i.e., distance and population size). The statistically significant results for the economic and gravity variables indicate the appropriateness of using Western theories to analyze migration in the Soviet context."