The Impact of Economic Sanctions on the Russian Labor Market

With the rise of targeted economic sanctions as a fundamental tool of foreign policy, this paper analyzes the negative externalities observed by ordinary individuals working within targeted industries. Through micro-level data obtained from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey- Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE), we examine the modern and ongoing case of target sanctions from 2014-2018 stemming from the Ukrainian Crisis. This paper contributes the first individual-level analysis of the impact of targeted sanctions. We find that sanctions imposed by the US/EU on Russia lead to a substantial and persistent decrease in earnings among individuals working within targeted industries. These findings display the microeconomic repercussions associated with target sanctions that are often overlooked in political investigations into the effectiveness of sanction programs. Joint paper with Christen Williams.