Landing on All Fours? Communist Elites in Post-Soviet Russia

Abstract

This paper analyzes the economic situation of former Communist party members in post-Soviet Russia. On the basis of the Russian Socio-Economic Transition Panel, we are able to identify members of the Communist party prior to transition so that we can assess their relative economic performance between 1993 and 1999. We find a significant wage premium associated with former membership in the Soviet Communist party during the period from 1993 to 1999. After addressing non-random selection into the Communist party using an instrumental variables approach, we demonstrate that the overall Communist wage premium can be attributed to positive unobservable characteristics of former party members.