nep-cis New Economics Papers
on Confederation of Independent States
Issue of 2021‒05‒03
six papers chosen by
Alexander Harin
Modern University for the Humanities

  1. From Friends to Foes: National Identity and Collaboration in Diverse Teams By Laurentsyeva, Nadzeya
  2. Working Beyond the Normal Retirement Age in Urban China and Urban Russia By Gustafsson, Björn Anders; Nivorozhkina, Ludmila; Wan, Haiyuan
  3. The Ruble Collapse in an Online Marketplace: Some Lessons for Market Designers By John J. Horton
  4. Product Variety, the Cost of Living and Welfare Across Countries By Alberto Cavallo; Robert C. Feenstra; Robert Inklaar
  5. СУЧАСНІ ПІДХОДИ ДО ВИЗНАЧЕННЯ ЦИВІЛЬНОПРАВОВОГО СТАТУСУ ДЕРЖАВИ УКРАЇНА В КОНТЕКСТІ ОНОВЛЕННЯ НАЦІОНАЛЬНОГО ЗАКОНОДАВСТВА By Anatoliy Kostruba; В Маслова
  6. More Than a Ban on Smoking? Behavioural Spillovers of Smoking Bans in the Workplace By Costa-Font, Joan; Salmasi, Luca; Zaccagni, Sarah

  1. By: Laurentsyeva, Nadzeya (LMU Munich)
    Abstract: This project studies collaboration in highly skilled, nationally diverse teams. An unexpected international political conflict makes national diversity more salient among existing and potential team members. I exploit this natural experiment to quantify the role of social, identity-driven, costs for performance and formation of diverse teams. Using microdata from GitHub, the world’s largest hosting platform for software projects, I estimate the causal impacts of a political conflict that burst out between Russia and Ukraine in 2014. I find that the conflict strongly reduced online cooperation between Russian and Ukrainian programmers. The conflict lowered the likelihood that Ukrainian and Russian programmers work in the same team and led to the performance decline of existing joint projects. I provide evidence that the observed effects were not driven by economic considerations. Rather, the conflict activated national identities and shifted programmers’ taste for teammates and projects. My results highlight the role of identity-driven concerns that can distort existing and prevent future collaborations, otherwise profitable from an economic perspective.
    Keywords: teams; diversity; conflict; national identity; open source;
    JEL: D22 D74 F23 F51 J71
    Date: 2019–12–18
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rco:dpaper:226&r=
  2. By: Gustafsson, Björn Anders (University of Gothenburg); Nivorozhkina, Ludmila (Rostov State Economic University); Wan, Haiyuan (Beijing Normal University)
    Abstract: The incidence of working for earnings beyond the normal pension age of 55 for females and 60 for males in urban China and Russia is investigated using micro-data for 2002, 2013, and 2018. Estimated logit models show that, in both countries, the probability of working after normal retirement age is positively related to living with a spouse only, being healthy, and having a higher education level but is negatively associated with age, the scale of pension and, in urban China, being female. We find that seniors in urban Russia are more likely to work for earnings than their counterparts in China. Two possible reasons for this difference are ruled out: cross-country differences in health status and the age distribution among elderly people. We also show that working beyond the normal retirement age has a much stronger negative association with earnings in urban China than in urban Russia. This is consistent with the facts that the normal retirement age is strictly enforced in urban China and seniors attempting to work face intensive competition from younger migrant workers. We conclude that China can learn from Russia that it has a substantial potential for increasing employment among healthy people under 70.
    Keywords: retirement, older people, employment, China, Russia, labour market
    JEL: E24 J14 J J3 P52
    Date: 2021–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14294&r=
  3. By: John J. Horton
    Abstract: The sharp devaluation of the ruble in 2014 increased the real returns to Russians from working in a global online labor marketplace, as contracts in this market are dollar-denominated. Russians clearly noticed the opportunity, with Russian hours-worked increasing substantially, primarily on the extensive margin—incumbent Russians already active were fairly inelastic. Contrary to the predictions of bargaining models, there was little to no pass-through of the ruble price changes in to wages. There was also no evidence of a demand-side response, with buyers not posting more "Russian friendly" jobs, suggesting limited cross-side externalities. The key findings—a high extensive margin elasticity but low intensive margin elasticity; little pass-through into wages; and little evidence of a cross-side externality—have implications for market designers with respect to pricing and supply acquisition.
    JEL: J01
    Date: 2021–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28702&r=
  4. By: Alberto Cavallo; Robert C. Feenstra; Robert Inklaar
    Abstract: We use the structure of the Melitz (2003) model to compare the cost of living and welfare across countries, while incorporating product variety measured by the count of barcodes or firms. For 47 countries, we compare welfare relative to the United States to conventional measures of real consumption. Relative welfare is similar to or higher than that indicated by real consumption for a select group of nations in Europe and some large countries like China and Russia, but lower in most other countries. This qualitative pattern has some similarities to that found in Jones and Klenow (2016), but for very different reasons.
    JEL: E01 F12
    Date: 2021–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28711&r=
  5. By: Anatoliy Kostruba (Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University); В Маслова
    Abstract: Однією з сучасних проблем вітчизняної правової науки є дискурс приватно-правового виміру природи держави. Дослідження природи держави з давнішніх часів є предметом пошуку гуманітарних наук, в тому числі філософії. На теперішньому етапі розвитку, в державі, окрім політичних, спостерігається група явищ соціального характеру, які мають пріоритетне значення в громадянському суспільстві. Тому розкриття феномену держави за допомогою приватно-правового інструментарію має актуальне значення на сучасному етапі розвитку не тільки правової науки, але й законодавства Україні. Держава виступає не тільки як форма забезпечення такого соціального компромісу, але й як активний та рівний учасник відповідних 93 правових відносин. Отже, держава є соціальною реальністю, зміст і характер якої не вичерпується виключно фізичними рисами, а може також мати абстрактний образ свого існування. Оскільки держава це союз інтересів осіб, об'єднаних в єдиний соціальний організм з метою їх забезпечення, то логічно, що юридична особа синтезує в собі не тільки ознаки присутні корпорації, але й ознаки, які присутні державі як суб'єкта права. Ця ідея була розвинута Жиліним О. О. у 1916 році та має відповідне теоретичне сприйняття на сучасному етапі розвитку доктрини цивільного права. Тобто, держава є юридичною особою, в якому органи державної влади мають виконувати функції органу управління такою особою. 95 Орган державної влади не повинен мати власної правосуб'єктності. Нажаль в цивільному законодавстві України вказане питання вирішено в іншої площині, що створює передумови для його системного реформування.
    Keywords: State - Responsibility - Grants - France - Public economic law - Risk Management - Political and Political Economy - Responsibility,Subject of law,legal person,legal entities,civil law
    Date: 2021–03–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03195106&r=
  6. By: Costa-Font, Joan (London School of Economics); Salmasi, Luca (Catholic University - Rome); Zaccagni, Sarah (University of Copenhagen)
    Abstract: Are workplace smoking bans (WSBs) more than a ban on smoking? We study whether WSBs influence smoking cessation and exert behavioural spillover effects on (i) a number of health behaviours, and (ii) on individuals not directly affected by the bans. Drawing upon quasi-experimental evidence from Russia (a country where about half of the population smokes), which introduced a WBS (in addition to a smoking ban on public places), and adopting a difference-in-differences (DiD) strategy, which compares employed individuals (exposed to the work and public place ban) to those unemployed (exposed only to the ban in public places), we document three sets of findings. First, unlike previous studies (focusing on smoking bans in public places), we find robust evidence that WSBs increase smoking cessation in 2.9 percentage points (pp) among men. Second, we find that upon the WSB, quitters are less likely to use alcohol (6.7pp reduction among men and 3.5 pp among women), reduce their alcohol consumption (10 percent among men) and increase their physical activity (in 4.3 percentage points among men). WSBs are found to influence health behaviours of those not directly affected by the reform, such as never smokers. Our findings are consistent with a model of joint formation of health behaviours, and suggest of the needs to account for a wider set of spillover effects when estimating the welfare effect of WSBs.
    Keywords: joint behavioural formation, workplace smoking bans, behavioural spillovers, smoking, drinking, physical activity, healthy identity, Russia
    JEL: I18 H75 L51
    Date: 2021–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14299&r=

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