  The sharp devaluation of the ruble in 2014 increased the real returns to
Russians from working in a global online labor marketplace, as con- tracts 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.
