Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/KirillChagin

This paper presents an impact evaluation of an active labor market program operating in over a dozen Russian cities. The program provides job search assistance and significant financial and social services support to unemployed workers who are members of very poor families. It is of interest because of high success (job acquisition) rates previously documented. The analysis shows that participants are significantly more likely to find and retain a job than a control group of similar workers who registered at the local Employment Centers at the same time. On the other hand, these workers were found to take jobs paying significantly lower wages than the controls. Importantly, data for an earlier participant cohort (but no controls) show that 75 percent of program participants remained employed more than a year after exiting the program.

This work explores the satisfaction of a sample of 300 frail elderly from rural Russia with the support services provided by social service agency staff. The client population lives in extremely difficult conditions in terms of housing and associated communal services. They reported high levels of satisfaction with the agency provided services. The patterns identified are broadly consistent with expectations based on modeling done for the U.S. populations receiving at-home care. The results clearly indicate the value of providing such services to frail elderly in such circumstances.

This paper reports the results of an assessment of pioneering pilot competitions for the delivery of social services in three municipalities in 2000-2001: Perm, Velikii Novgorod, and Tomsk. The objective of the pilots was to determine if the local governments could hire NPOs to be service providers following a rigorous and fair competitive process and whether the selected NPOs would do an adequate job in delivering services.

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