The Ruble Collapse in an Online Marketplace: Some Lessons for Market Designers / John J. Horton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Horton, John J.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w28702.

NBER working paper series no. w28702

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2021.

Summary:

The sharp devaluation of the ruble in 2014 increased the real returns to Russians from working in a global online labor marketplace, as contracts in this market are dollar-denominated. Russians clearly noticed the opportunity, with Russian hours-worked increasing substantially, primarily on the extensive margin--incumbent Russians already active were fairly inelastic. Contrary to the predictions of bargaining models, there was little to no pass-through of the ruble price changes in to wages. There was also no evidence of a demand-side response, with buyers not posting more "Russian friendly" jobs, suggesting limited cross-side externalities. The key findings--a high extensive margin elasticity but low intensive margin elasticity; little pass-through into wages; and little evidence of a cross-side externality--have implications for market designers with respect to pricing and supply acquisition.

Notes:

Print version record

April 2021.