Title: The growth of inequality in Russia: is globalisation to blame?

Authors: Irina Soboleva

Addresses: Institute of Economy, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117218, Nakhimovskiy prospect, 32, Moscow, Russia

Abstract: The paper explores income based and non-monetary dimensions of inequality in Russia. It is argued that globalisation exacerbated inequality at least in three ways. Firstly, the adoption of global neo-liberal economic concepts resulted in an excessive reliance on market forces and a curtailment of social guarantees which produced a rise of wealth and income differentiation and undermined equality of opportunity. Secondly, the liberalisation of foreign trade and global competition gave impetus to a rapid development of the fuel sector exacerbating the structural bias in economy and wage differentiation. Thirdly, globalisation diversified employment opportunities for certain categories of workers with access to the international labour market which offered much better terms of employment as compared to Russian standards. Globalisation provided new opportunities for development and individual success but in the absence of a strong state commitment to equitable provision of social goods it is bound to exacerbate inequality problem.

Keywords: Russia; economic transition; globalisation; economic inequality; monetary incomes; non-monetary benefits; social spending; Russian Federation; income based inequality; non-monetary inequality; global economics; neo-liberal economics; neo-liberalism; market forces; social guarantees; wealth differentiation; income differentiation; equality; opportunity; liberalisation; foreign trade; global competition; fuel sector; structural bias; wage differentiation; employment opportunities; international labour markets; employment terms; individual success; state commitments; equitable provision; social goods; management concepts; management philosophy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCP.2013.052832

International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 2013 Vol.7 No.1, pp.64 - 81

Published online: 05 Apr 2013 *

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