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on Confederation of Independent States |
| By: | Marina Tsygankova (Statistics Norway) |
| Abstract: | In the late 1990s, several proposals for a structural reform that would bring competition and market prices to the Russian gas industry were intensely debated. Splitting up Russian gas monopolist Gazprom into several producing companies was a considered option. In this paper, I examine theoretically and numerically how a split-up of Gazprom would affect Russian national welfare. Results show that under the current gas market structures in Europe and Russia, the split-up of Gazprom’s monopoly might not be beneficial for Russia. The market share of Russia in the European market is important in determining whether Gazprom’s dominance is supported under the national welfare criteria. |
| Keywords: | Russia; Natural gas; restructuring reform; market share; national welfare |
| JEL: | D43 L13 L11 L22 |
| Date: | 2007–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssb:dispap:526&r=cis |
| By: | Yuriy Gorodnichenko; Jorge Martinez-Vazquez (Andrew Young School of Policy Studies); Klara Sabirianova Peter (Andrew Young School of Policy Studies) |
| Abstract: | Using micro-level data, we examine the effects of Russia’s 2001 flat rate income tax reform on consumption, income, and tax evasion. We use the gap between household expenditures and reported earnings as a proxy for tax evasion with data from a household panel for 1998-2004. Utilizing difference-in-difference and regression-discontinuity-type approaches, we find that large and significant changes in tax evasion following the flat tax reform are associated with changes in voluntary compliance and cannot be explained by changes in tax enforcement policies. We also find the productivity response of taxpayers to the flat tax reform is small relative to the tax evasion response. Finally, we develop a feasible framework to assess the deadweight loss from personal income tax in the presence of tax evasion based on the consumption response to tax changes. We show that because of the strong tax evasion response the efficiency gain from the Russian flat tax reform is at least 30% smaller than the gain implied by conventional approaches. |
| Keywords: | tax evasion, consumption-income gap, personal income tax, flat tax, difference-in-difference, regression discontinuity, deadweight loss, transition, Russia. |
| Date: | 2007–12–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ays:ispwps:paper0720&r=cis |
| By: | Aleksey Oshchepkov |
| Abstract: | Interregional differentials in nominal wages in the Russian Federation are huge compared to other countries. Using the NOBUS micro-data and a methodology based on the estimation of the wage equation augmented by aggregate regional characteristics, we show that these differentials have a compensative nature. Russian workers receive wage compensations for living in regions with a higher price level and worse non-pecuniary characteristics, such as a relatively low life expectancy, a high level of air pollution, poor medical services and a colder climate. After adjusting for these regional characteristics, the relative ranking of regions in terms of average wages changes considerably. Moreover, regional nominal wages become positively correlated with interregional migration flows. According to our estimates, half of the interregional wage variation between workers with similar productive characteristics should be considered to be compensative. These results support the view that the best policy reaction to the current high interregional wage differentials should be the removal of migration barriers and a reduction in migration costs. In general, our results show that wage compensations for regional disamenities along with differences in employment composition are able to account for about three fourths of the observed interregional variation in wages. |
| Keywords: | compensating differentials, regional wages, wage equation, interregional migration, transition, Russia |
| JEL: | J3 J6 P2 R1 R2 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp750&r=cis |