Getting Personal: Networks and Stratification in the Russian Labor Market, 1985–2001

The authors use employment histories from survey data to examine personal network use and stratification in the Russian labor market from 1985 to 2001. Institutional changes associated with the Soviet collapse increased the use of networks and shaped their prevalence and benefits in theoretically coherent ways. In Russia, networks positively affect job quality, whether measured by occupation, current earnings, or wage arrears. These findings relate to recent debates over whether job contacts provide advantages and how social capital relates to postsocialist inequalities involving gender, Communist Party membership, and education. Russia also exhibits a previously overlooked relationship between network use and locality type.