What makes youth become NEET? Evidence from Russia

This article addresses the issue of socio-demographic attributes of NEET status (dropping out of employment, education or training for young people between 15 and 24 years old) in Russia, and presents an investigation of the impact of education on falling into NEET for the first time. Whilst existing studies on Russian NEETs provide a general descriptive insight into NEET status, little is known about the role of education in NEET-types formation. The empirical analysis was based on the micro-data of the Russian Labour Force Survey (LFS) by the Federal State Statistics Service for 1995–2017, and the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) for 2000–2017. Gender-specific multinomial logit analyses and dynamic multinomial logit panel regressions empirically support the heterogeneous nature of Russian NEETs confirming the human capital framework. They show that higher education does not provide a universal safety net from NEET status in Russia. While risks of NEET-inactivity are mainly concentrated among those who have primary or vocational education, NEET-unemployment in Russia is associated with higher education. Results contribute to the ongoing discussion about the changing rates of return for higher education and the saturation of the Russian labour market with university graduates.