Measurement of Total Factor Productivity Growth in Russia with U.S. BLS Methodology

Pavel N. Pavlov – Senior Researcher of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (Moscow, Russia). E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Andrey S. Kaukin – Head of Department for System Analysis of Sectoral Markets of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Head of Sectoral Markets and Infrastructure Department of the Gaidar Institute, Candidate of Economic Sciences (Moscow, Russia). E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The paper presents an assessment of total factor productivity growth in Russia in 2001–2018 with U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics methodology and RLMS data. Using U.S. BLS methodology and methodology of RANEPA and The Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy we obtain comparable in magnitude estimates of TFP growth. During the global financial and economic crisis of 2008–2009 there was a local increase in labor composition index in Russia due to the release of low-skilled labor, these results are consistent with foreign experience. Identified long-term stagnation of the labor composition index raises the need for more intensive human capital investment in Russia.

Key words: TFP, labor input, quality of labor (labor composition), U.S. BLS, RLMS.