Paper abstract:

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of women leaders in Kyrgyzstan with a focus on the socio-historical, political and cultural contexts. It examines women leaders in government, business, education, science as well as non-profit and non-governmental organizations, art and the media. Our research approach combines both qualitative and quantitative methods. The survey addresses issues such as leadership characteristics and qualities, cultural and religious preconditions, practices and related stereotypes. It also considers the work-life balance of women leaders in Kyrgyzstan with an emphasis on family roles, particularly, the role of women as mothers, wives and daughters-in-law in patriarchal society. In-depth interviews with current women leaders in government, business, science, education and non-governmental organization sectors feature individual case studies on the challenges and opportunities that women leaders face in their careers. We argue that the role of women leaders in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia as a whole has not been considered holistically, by taking into account local perceptions and, in particular, the views of women leaders themselves. We firmly believe that the results of our research can generate more public debate and policy-making agendas and initiate further scholarly work.

Paper abstract:

Since the 2016 death of long-ruling personalist dictator Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan has introduced a series of economic reforms aimed at privatizing state-owned companies, liberalizing the agriculture sector, enhancing international trade and modifying the tax system. Ten years prior, the death of Turkmenistan’s personalist dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov, resulted in no significant reforms. These divergent experiences raise questions regarding the conditions under which a dictator’s death can spur economic reform. Although recent work has revealed that institutional constraints and structural power dynamics shape economic policymaking in authoritarian regimes, there has been little effort to understand dynamism in authoritarian economic policy or to understand the drivers behind economic reform in autocratic regimes. This paper advances two propositions: 1) in general, an autocrat’s death is unlikely to provoke economic liberalization, and in fact may lead to economic restrictions and 2) in specific cases, the reshuffling of elites following a succession will encourage reform as a tool by insiders to target rival elites. The paper finds support for the first proposition through an analysis of economic policies in a global set of autocracies that have experienced dictator death. The paper then examines the second proposition through two sets of paired comparisons of states that have experienced dictator death. Specifically, two Central Asian states that vary in the degree and relative liberalization of reforms (the aforementioned Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan) are compared with two sub-Saharan African states that likewise vary (Gabon, which instituted significant reforms, and Guinea, which did not). Initial analysis identifies the structure of elite networks prior to leadership death as a potential determinant of relative economic reform.

Paper abstract:

Studies on factors affecting subjective well-being have mushroomed. The factors affecting subjective well-being differ society from society. Studies show that social capital is an important factor of subjective well-being in collectivist societies. This paper investigates the relationships between social capital and subjective well-being in Uzbekistan. Using World Values Survey, I estimate ordered logistic regression. The regression model includes socio-economic and demographic variables of 1500 respondents. The analysis reveals a positive relationship between social capital (trust and participation in social activities) and subjective well-being in Uzbekistan.

Keywords: Social Capital, Subjective Well-Being, Uzbekistan

Paper abstract:

In this paper, we analyze the care economy in post-soviet Kazakhstan, focusing on childcare issues using the Household Budget Survey (HBS).

Kazakhstan has gone through economic and social transformations since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As a result, the number of subsidized kindergarten facilities and social programs has drastically declined. These changes have increased women's childcare needs and decreased their participation in the labor force, affecting their household income. Verme (2001) found that women in Kazakhstan experience reduced income in the state sector and are less likely to be self-employed than men. Next, co-residence of adult children with elderly parents is continuously practiced in the country, which may substantially affect women's work decisions. Co-residence may reduce women's labor supply as they are expected to care for elderly family members. On the other hand, co-resident elderly family members often provide care to their grandchildren, which may facilitate women's labor force participation (Bruck et al., 2012). In the case of nuclear households, women may not have these options, which may force them to withdraw from the formal workforce to become the primary caregivers for children and consequently limit their financial autonomy and family income.

We use Kazakhstan HBS to examine households' decisions on childcare and allocation of share of income on child-related expenses. First, we estimate the sources of income, including formal employment and social transfers, and use data on preschool and school expenses, extracurricular activities fees, informal expenses for schoolchildren, tutoring, and babysitting services to define childcare expenses. We observe that income per capita in extended households having preschool children is higher than in nuclear families with preschool children, widening the income inequality in Kazakhstan. However, we did not find a difference in the share of income spent on childcare expenses between households with different living arrangements.