Union Formation in Russia, 1985-2001

Theodore P. Gerber, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Danielle Berman, University of Wisconsin at Madison

The economic and social turmoil accompanying the collapse of the Soviet system make contemporary Russia an ideal setting in which to study how macro-level structural and institutional changes affect patterns of union formation. We analyze marital histories from a recent survey of 7,167 Russian adults in order to: 1) identify trends in the raw (gross) and adjusted (net of covariates) rates of first marriage, remarriage, any marriage, and cohabitation in Russia from 1985-2001, among those at risk for these outcomes; 2) assess how marital status, age, gender, education, employment status, city size, and regional economic conditions affect union formation in contemporary Russia; 3) test for variation in the effects of these variables by gender; and 4) test for change in the effects of age, education, and employment status, following the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991.