Labor productivity in the non-resource sectors of the Russian economy: What determines firm-level growth?

The study discusses underlying factors of labor productivity in firms of basic non-resource industries of the Russian economy and considers the role of innovation and investment activity, human capital development, competitive environment and government support. The data is based on the results of a survey of managers of 713 companies in basic non-resource industries (manufacturing, agriculture, transport, construction). We find high level of divergence of firm productivity at the industry level. We show that higher level of productivity is accompanied with investments in human capital, in fixed assets, as well as the use of digital technologies, but we do not find that higher productivity is accompanied by innovations and expenditures on research and development. We show that productivity growth is combined not only with investment, but also with innovative activity (process innovations) and R&D expenditures. The driver of productivity growth is the private sector: the increase in productivity is driven by firms serving the demand of private medium and large companies. Competitive environment is another factor: moderate competition with import (which acts as a stimulus for innovations of Russian companies) is a condition for the productivity growth