New firm formation and regional employment in Russia: Direct and indirect effects

Studies of employment growth factors are more relevant during crises. Review of foreign studies and analysis of Russian data in 2005—2018 using a distributed lag model based on the Almon method shows that there are multidirectional short-term direct and longer-term indirect effects of starting a business on employment growth. The regional context is important; and the prevalence of one effect over another and the direction of influence of additional factors depend on the type of region. Thus; for large agglomerations with high labor productivity and an active SME sector; an S-shaped lag structure of the dependence of employment on the creation of new firms was revealed: with short-term positive; medium-term negative; and further positive effects. For regions with low urbanization; labor productivity and a less active SME sector; the most striking is the short-term positive impact on employment from the opening of firms; which is replaced by a negative one after 2—3 years. At the same time; in the latter regions; the total impact may be higher than in the former; and on average; a new firm (per 1;000 people in the workforce) leads to an increase in employment by 0.56 p.p. This provides grounds for some policy recommendations.