Interregional Labor Migration as a Tool to Increase Regional Labor Productivity: The Case of Russia
Purpose: The paper deals with the analysis of the influence of interregional labor migration in the Russian Federation on regional labor productivity. Design/Methodology/Approach: Empirical analysis was conducted on the statistical data collected from the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation. The sample includes data on 85 subjects of the Russian Federation for the period 2011-2016. The study substantiates the impact of interregional labor migration in the Russian Federation on regional labor productivity and to form the tools for managing migration processes, ensuring its improvement. Findings: The study showed that interregional differences in wages, the differentiation of the characteristics of labor markets in the region of residence and the potential region of employment, different transport accessibility and additional employee costs associated with staying in another region are the main economic reasons for interregional labor migration in the Russian Federation. The regression analysis confirmed hypotheses that higher level of labor migration from the region leads to a decrease in labor productivity in the region. Practical Implications: Based on the empirically derived relationships, authors created a set of tools for managing migration processes, ensuring their improvement, which can be used for the development of program documents at the regional and interregional levels. Originality/Value: The main contribution of this study is the combination of deep statistical analysis and migration factors‘ analysis to provide valuable conclusions in interregional labor migrations.