Article
Income Stratification in Russia: What do Different Approaches Demonstrate?
This paper provides empirical analysis of income stratification in contemporary Russian society and its dynamics in recent decades. The paper analyses in detail different approaches (absolute and relative) to defining income groups. It is shown that the most widely used thresholds of the absolute approach cannot be efficiently applied to contemporary Russian society, as they fail to define the subgroups within the population, while relative approach, based on the median income as the social standard of living, appears more effective for income stratification in Russia. A specific income stratification scale is suggested. Its application shows that middle-income groups currently dominate in income structure, however, the incomes of their representatives are not high in absolute terms and their living standards are quite modest. Income stratification in Russia has been noticeably transformed over the last 20 years – the middle-income group has been growing while the low income and high-income groups’ shares have been declining. The proposed scale implies possibilities for structural adjustments such as regional- and settlement-specific disparities in income distribution; it can be easily replicated and allows broad potential for future research, including international comparisons of income stratification in societies undergoing transitional processes.
In theory, a poverty line can be defined as the cost of a common (inter-personally comparable) utility level across a population. But how can one know if this holds in practice? For groups sharing common consumption needs but facing different prices, the theory of revealed preference can be used to derive testable implications of utility consistency knowing only the "poverty bundles" and their prices. Heterogeneity in needs calls for extra information. We argue that subjective welfare data offer a credible means of testing utility consistency across different needs groups. A case study of Russia's official poverty lines shows how revealed preference tests can be used in conjunction with qualitative information on needs heterogeneity. The results lead us to question the utility consistency of Russia's official poverty lines.
Eighteen papers, from an international, interdisciplinary workshop on measuring empowerment organized by the World Bank's Poverty Reduction and Economic Management network in 2003, address the challenge of evaluating empowerment and its contribution to development effectiveness. Papers focus on a framework for evaluating how empowerment influences the development process and for analyzing the causal forces on empowerment, with cases from Latin America; women's empowerment as a variable in international development; measuring women's empowerment; an analysis of household and family dynamics; psychological empowerment and subjective well-being; an investigation of the relationship between income mobility and perceptions of subjective well-being related to that mobility, using panel data from Peru and Russia; self-rated power and welfare in Russia; applying Q methodology to empowerment; analytical issues in measuring empowerment at the community and local levels; peace, conflict, and empowerment; measuring empowerment at the community level; mixing qualitative and econometric methods; assessing empowerment at the national level in Eastern Europe and Central Asia; the CIVICUS Civil Society Index; empowerment as a positive-sum game; democracy, good governance, and empowerment; and measuring democratic governance. Contributors include economists, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, demographers, and political scientists. Narayan is Senior Adviser in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network of the World Bank. Index.
In this paper we use the rich set of unit-level data from the most recent Egyptian household surveys (1995 – 1996 and 1999 – 2000) to assess changes in poverty and inequality between 1995 and 2000. The study analysis is based on the new methodology of constructing household-specific poverty lines that account for the differences in regional prices, as well as differences in the consumption preferences and size and age composition of poor households. The results show that average household expenditures rose in the second half of the 1990s and the poverty rate fell from 20% to less than 17%. In addition to the ongoing divide in the urban-rural standard of living, a new geographical/regional divide emerged in the late 1990s. Poverty was found predominantly among less-educated individuals, particularly those working in agriculture and construction, and among seasonal and occasional workers. These groups could suffer the most from the slowing economic growth evident after 1999 – 2000.
This chapter addresses the relationship between class, family and social welfare policies by analysing the construction of the identity category of ‘unfortunate families’ in popular scientific discourses, governmental policy documents and discourses of social services, and by examining how those labelled as ‘unfortunate’ negotiate this identity conferred to them. The chapter shows that gender and class are closely intertwined in the production of this identity, as it is single mothers who are primarily categorized as ‘unfortunate’. In our analysis we draw on multiple sources of data. First, we analyse in-depth and focus group interviews with service providers and clients and participant observation data from a number of Russian cities. Second, we analyse various government documents and social advertisements, mass media materials, social policy and social work textbooks, and popular scientific texts published during the 1990s-2000s.
This chapter addresses the relationship between class, family and social welfare policies by analysing the construction of the identity category of ‘unfortunate families’ (neblagopoluchnye sem’i) in popular scientific discourses, governmental policy documents and discourses of social services, and by examining how those labelled as ‘unfortunate’ negotiate this identity conferred to them. The chapter shows that gender and class are closely intertwined in the production of this identity, as it is single mothers who are primarily categorised as ‘unfortunate’. In our analysis we draw on multiple sources of data. First, we analyse in-depth and focus group interviews with service providers and clients and participant observation data from a number of Russian cities. Second, we analyse various government documents and social advertisements, mass media materials, social policy and social work textbooks, and popular scientific texts published during the 1990–2010s. This chapter begins with a review of Western theoretical discussions of class in the context of family and welfare in order to see how Russia fits into these debates. Western class analysis was considered irrelevant in the Soviet Union due to the supposedly classless nature of advanced socialism, but the transition to a market economy in the 1990s and the new kind of class society it engendered have made these discussions topical in Russia. In the second section of this chapter we offer a brief description of the main principles of the Soviet and post-Soviet welfare ideologies and the policies towards families. The following sections examine how popular scientific discourses, governmental policy documents and social advertisements, and social service providers construct class with the concept of the unfortunate family. The last section preceding the conclusions analyses how mothers labelled as unfortunate negotiate this stigmatised identity.
A survey investigating the risk of falling into poverty in Russia shows that after improvements in the level of well-being of the Russian population during the past decade, the situation has grown relatively worse during the current economic crisis and for the poor the situation will continue to worsen at an accelerated pace.
Transformation of food consumption in Russia’s regions during the post-Soviet period is analyzed basing on the data on the share of food expenditure in the structure of consumer spending. A non-linear trend of consumption modernization is revealed, as well as its dependence on macroeconomic dynamics, level of money income adjusted for the cost of living, and poverty rate. The article shows the influence of geographic, economic and other factors on the share of natural food revenues in population consumption. Compared with the crisis of the 1990s, the latest crisis of 2014–2017 showed that the population of the regions just minimally compensated the decreasing money income by the growing revenues from household plots of land. The patriarchal model of adaptation to crises by intensifying revenues from the household plots is becoming a thing of the past in the majority of Russian regions.
Настоящий ежегодник представляет собой десятый том «Системного мониторинга глобальных и региональных рисков», подготовленный в рамках Программы фундаментальных исследований НИУ ВШЭ). Мониторинг глобальных и региональных рисков – многоаспектное научное направление, включающее в себя комплексное исследование экономических, политических, социальных, а также культурных особенностей развития того или иного региона. На страницах Мониторинга рассматриваются вопросы методологии анализа процессов социально-политической дестабилизации в странах Афразийской макрозоны нестабильности, публикуются результаты количественного анализа, моделирования и прогнозирования процессов социально-политической дестабилизации в странах Ближнего и Среднего Востока, рассматриваются сами дестабилизационные процессы в Афразийской макрозоне нестабильности на страновом и региональном уровне в контексте глобального развития и национальных интересов России.
Мы надеемся, что данный выпуск ежегодника будет полезен как специалистам, так и широкому кругу читателей, интересующихся глобальными процессами, кризисами, прогнозами мирового развития.