The Impact of Crises on Youth Unemployment of Russian Regions: An Empirical Analysis

The main purpose of this paper is to estimate the influence of the 1998 and 2008 crises on the youth unemployment rates (age class 20-29) in Russian regions. The investigation is founded on the panel data for 78 Russian regions during 1997–2008 provided by ROSSTAT (the main Russian State statistical organization). We compare the level and dynamics of the youth unemployment in various Russian regions and try to solve three main questions. Are there any special features of the youth unemployment in comparison with overall unemployment? How the 1998 crisis did change - and how the 2008 crisis is going to change - the youth unemployment dynamics? What can we learn from the impact of 1998 crisis and what is the main difference with the impact of the 2008 crisis? With the help of the obtained results we define some preliminary policy suggestion.